Panaji: A special court on Wednesday acquitted revenue minister and Panaji MLA Atanasio ‘Babush’ Monserrate of rape charges in a 2016 case after the prosecution failed to prove rape and that the woman was a minor. During the trial, she admitted that she had made up the allegations.“The prosecution in the present case failed to prove that accused Atanasio Monserrate had sexual intercourse with her and that her age was below 16 years. The prosecution failed to prove her age. In view of the evidence and case laws, the benefit of two years minus and plus came in favour of Monserrate,” said sessions judge Irshad Agha.
The woman had alleged that her mother sold her to then Santa Cruz MLA Monserrate for Rs 50 lakh. The court also acquitted co-accused Rosy Ferros, a Caranzalem resident, whom the woman referred to as aunty, who allegedly brokered the deal to sell her to Monserrate.Monserrate was the first sitting MLA in Goa to face charges under the stringent Pocso Act, but the court held that the prosecution failed to prove her age at the time of the offence, giving him the benefit of the doubt.“The most vital fact which was required to be proven by the prosecution is the age of the woman at the time when the offence was committed,” said the court.It observed that the woman’s complaint before police and magistrate about her mother selling her to Monserrate through Rosy for money was false. “During cross-examination, she answered one question in the affirmative, and thereby she admitted that whatever complaint she made before police and magistrate was a figment of imagination and there was no truth in the same. In fact, due to this statement, the prosecution’s case fell,” the court said.The court observed that she stated that she was told by an NGO that if she backed out from whatever appeared in the newspapers, people would think she was telling lies, and therefore, according to her, she continued saying incriminating things against Monserrate and Rosy.She also said that she was angry with Rosy for taking her phone and stopping financial help to her. “This shows that a complaint must have been lodged in anger,” the court said.The woman also said that Monserrate was helping her financially on account of her family situation. However, he also stopped giving her money. She said that whatever she stated about Monserrate was due to frustration and depression, and nothing untoward happened in the farmhouse, the court observed.The case of the prosecution was that Monserrate and Rosy enticed her by offering her expensive gifts and induced her to send lewd photographs, which they used to threaten her, and forced her to go to Monserrate’s house and meet him.
