A Russian woman tourist has alleged she was stalked and slapped by an unidentified two-wheeler rider in the Arpora village in Goa after she refused his offer for a lift.
The tourist has alleged that the police have “done nothing” since registering her complaint leaving her frustrated and her attacker on the loose.
Speaking to Hindustan Times on Tuesday, the Russian tourist said she was followed by a man on a two-wheeler in a white T-shirt and dark blue jeans who offered to drop her home at around noon on May 15 as she was walking home after visiting an ATM at Arpora.
“He was following me and stopping every five-ten metres and asking me can I sit on his bike, can he drop me home. So I was saying ‘No, no thank you’ and I was just ignoring him. He was always looking around to see that no one is around,” she said.
“Then he stopped in front of me and he asked me, ‘Can I drop you? I said: ‘Why are you following me? I don’t need anyone to follow me because I live right here and I can walk alone,” she added.
She said instead of leaving he went straight in front and took a u-turn and drove towards her. “He went just next to me and slapped me badly,” the tourist recounted.
She accused the police of “doing absolutely nothing” since she lodged a complaint.
“They didn’t even ask me about video pictures or the whole story or anything. They didn’t need it. It has been five days,” she said.
“I’m doing what I can and asking help from local people, people who are around me and my friends and they are helping me more than the police, but it shouldn’t be like this because Goa is a tourist place. How can the police be so irresponsible in tourist place?” she asked.
Anjuna Police have, however, said they are verifying the tourist’s claims.
“As per my knowledge there has not been any complaint of this nature registered with our police station but I will still verify this matter,” Anjuna Police inspector Navlesh Dessai said.
The tourist said she will be leaving India in five days and hopes that her friends can follow up the matter.
“All I want from the police is to look at this case but I don’t want any other women tourists to be harassed or assaulted like me,” she said.
Attacks on foreign tourists in Goa have got international attention and sought to put the spotlight on the darker side of the state otherwise famous for being a beach paradise.
Over the last decade, hundreds of tourists have been molested and raped and 245 foreign tourists have lost their lives in Goa many of them in mysterious circumstances.
In December last year, a 42-year old British woman was raped and robbed while walking home from the railway station in Goa’s Palolem beach village. The same day the police arrested the accused who later confessed to the crime. And in January in the same year, a man was arrested for molesting an American tourist after the woman posted his picture on social media, describing the alleged incident.
In March 2017, a young Irish tourist Danielle McLaughlin was raped and brutally murdered in Palolem village in South Goa. The police arrested local resident Vikat Bhagat who admitted to raping and murdering McLaughlin by striking her head with a stone.
First Published:
May 22, 2019 09:54 IST
Source: HindustanTimes