Rape of 3 minor girls in Goa: Guest house owner and manager arrested; 4 held so far
Panaji (PTI): Police have arrested the owner and the manager of a guest house in North Goa district where three minor girls were allegedly raped by two men, taking the number of those held in the case to four, officials said on Thursday.
The girls, aged 11, 13 and 15 and residents of the same building, were allegedly raped by two men at the guest house located in Calangute area on June 7 and 8. The five had checked-in at the guest house together, they said.
The two older girls are sisters.
The girls' parents filed complaints on June 8 that they had gone missing a day earlier.
Police formed multiple teams, and rescued them on the same day from the guest house while arresting Altaf Mujawar (19) and Om Naik (21), an official earlier said.
Two more persons - guest house owner Rajat Chauhan (31) and manager Mansoor Peer (35) - were arrested on Wednesday night, Superintendent of Police (North) Rahul Gupta told PTI on Thursday.
They were arrested for accommodating the minor girls at the guest house without verification and consent of their parents, thus violating laws and abetting the crime, he said.
All the four accused have been booked under relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the Goa Children's Act, the police said.
"We are sealing the guest house and moving for cancellation of its license. The guest house management and owners will not be spared if they give room to a child in the absence of any family or relatives accompanying him or her," the SP said, cautioning all such facilities in the state.
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Bridge portion collapses on Jammu outskirts; 3-4 labourers feared trapped, 1 rescued
Jammu (PTI): A portion of a small bridge collapsed in the Bantalab area on the outskirts of Jammu city on Friday, trapping at least three to four labourers under the debris, while one injured worker was rescued, official sources said.
Authorities have closed the road link following the collapse of the portion of the bridge.
The incident occurred when labourers were carrying out repair work on a retaining wall near the bridge that was damaged in last year's flash floods, the sources said.
According to the sources, a section of the bridge suddenly gave way, burying workers engaged at the site under the rubble.
Police, Army and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) teams launched rescue operations to extricate those buried under the debris. They pulled out one injured labourer and shifted him to a hospital, the sources said.
Family members of the labourers present at the site said around six workers engaged at the site at the time of the incident came under the debris when the structure collapsed. The family members said while two of the labourers managed to escape, four got trapped.
The sources said those trapped included the husband of a woman labourer, a mason, an unmarried labourer and a relative of the contractor.
There was no official confirmation on the exact number of persons trapped under the debris till the filing of this report.
The rescue operations are ongoing.
