Daijiworld Media Network - Panaji (SR)

Panaji, Sep 27: BJP MLA Atanasio Monserrate to stand trial for allegedly raping a teenage girl in 2016. The North Goa district and sessions court on Thursday ordered the trial and framed charges against him under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

Monserrate, well known as Babush, has also been charged for rape, wrongful confinement and criminal intimidation. The trial will begin on October 17.

In 2016, the survivor alleged that her mother sold her to the then- St Cruz MLA for Rs 50 lac and he drugged and raped her on March 6. In July 2018, the Goa police had filed a 250-page charge sheet by listing 40 witnesses.

However, Monserrate responded by saying that the trial will remove the taint on his character. Referring indirectly to the late chief minister Manohar Parrikar, he said, “People who framed me are no more, I want to get rid of this case.

“I was looking forward to the start of the trial, which has been pending for over two and a half years. For the past two years, even the charges were not framed,” he said, as reported in TOI.