Goa Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar sparked a row on Thursday after he called the accused in the Delhi-based women gang rape case ‘naive’.
“Such stray incidents are bound to take place in a busy tourist destinations like Goa,” Parulekar told a news agency. He further said, “The boys are ‘nadaan’ (naive) and they have small crimes registered against them…this will not happen in future.”
Responding to Parulekar’s statement, Goa Pradesh Congress committee secretary Urfan Mulla said “Such a statement would provoke criminals to commit more such crimes in the state. Goa is becoming unsafe every passing day. The Tourism minister’s statement needs to be condemned outrightly.”
NCP Goa spokesman Trajano D’Mello also criticised the statement by saying, “The statement indicates the psyche of the minister. He is supporting the accused. We can’t expect justice to the victims.”
Five people were arrested on Tuesday for presenting themselves as policemen and then abducting, beating and sexually assaulting the two young Delhi-based women tourists.
