Panaji: Tourism Minister Micky Pacheco fears that rapes and assaults on tourists may make Goa the “rape capital” of India, but his Cabinet colleague blames foreigners.
Public Works Department Minister Churchill Alemao on Friday blamed the media for taking up the cause of the "white-skinned tourists".
"When Scarlett died in Goa, what was she doing in a shack at 4 am? I have five daughters who return home at 11 pm, max by midnight," said Alemao. He was speaking about the rape and murder of British teenager Scarlett Keeling at Anjuna beach in February last year.
Alemao said that the media was ignoring several other rape cases in Goa because of its obsession with white skin.
"I am very upset that the media highlights the foreigners' cases. Even a small case is hyped. There are so many rape cases happening in Goa which do not get highlighted," Alemao, a former chief minister of Goa, said.
"Indians become rape victims in the Gulf, men get killed in America and other places, but the media only highlights incidents against foreigners in Goa," said Alemao, who has publicly backed John Fernandes, main accused in the Dec 1 rape of a 25-year-old Russian tourist.
Earlier in the day in a letter to Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, Pacheco said that Goa may soon "gain reputation as the rape capital of India".
Pacheco, in his letter dated Dec 10, also said that "an impression is gaining ground that the police in Goa are either grossly incompetent or are influenced by other factors, as a result of which complaints are not properly investigated. There is a fear that foreign embassies may issue an advisory to their nationals to avoid Goa as a holiday destination in view of the pathetic performance of the Goa police."
The Tourism Minister's letter comes against the backdrop of the Russian woman's rape, allegedly by Fernandes, a local politician.
The Russian said that the police initially pressurized her against filing the rape complaint. Ever since the complaint was filed, the police have not summoned the accused even once for questioning, nor have they arrested him.
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