Goa police on Friday sent former state Education minister and expelled Congress MLA Atanasio Monserratte to three days police remand for allegedly raping a minor girl after ‘buying’ her from her mother for Rs 50 lakh.
The girl’s mother too was arrested on the charge of human trafficking and also sent to police custody for three days.
“Monserratte has been placed under arrest. We will be soon moving the court to seek his remand as we need his custodial interrogation,” Superintendent of Police (Crime Branch) Karthik Kashyap said.
A senior police official said that police had examined ten witnesses and also recorded the girl’s statement before a magistrate.
According to the 16-year-old girl’s complaint, her mother and another woman hatched a conspiracy and sold her for Rs 50 lakh to Monserratte in March this year for sexual exploitation.
“Monserratte kept her in confinement, administered some stupefying substance and had sexual intercourse with her several times without her consent,” it says.
Monserratte, who was out of Goa yesterday when the FIR was registered at the Women Police Station, today returned and drove to Ribander office of Crime Branch, accompanied by his wife Jeniffer and a few supporters.
(With PTI inputs)