A case under Section 354, for outraging modesty of a woman, was registered by Ponda police.
A second FIR has been lodged, this time by a 20-year-old Mumbai resident, against priest Dhananjay Bhave of the Mangueshi Devasthan temple in Goa on Sunday evening, days after a 26-year-old medical student from the US had lodged a similar complaint of molestation against him.
The 20-year-old student, currently undergoing a computer course in Mumbai, approached the Ponda police with her father on Sunday. A case under Section 354, for outraging modesty of a woman, was registered by Ponda police. “She is very disturbed. For two-three days after the incident, her father said she was very upset and kept crying,” said the complainant’s Philadelphia-based aunt. From the USA, her aunt was the first to complain, through email, to the Mangueshi temple management committee to look into the matter.
The family claims the complaint was made in June, days after the incident on June 14 when accused Bhave allegedly pulled the student by her shoulder and hugged her while her father was performing pooja and mother was in another part of the temple.
In her complaint, the Mumbai student said the Goan priest has been their family priest and so was his father. “My father was doing the Abhishek (prayer ritual) and I and my mom were about to start the Pradakshina, our usual ritual we perform together. As we started towards the gabhara, he stopped us saying ‘don’t go together’ and asked my mother to go first [sic],” she said in her complaint, adding that the priest started conversing with her and when she bent to touch his feet, he grabbed her shoulders and attempted to kiss her.
“In a sacred space like this, and from a sagacious person like purohit, the last thing you expect is a sexual attack,” she said.
“When we complained to the committee, they blamed us for fabricating the story. They said it must be her fault and rejected all our claims,” the aunt told The Indian Express. As per Mangueshi temple management committee, the priest has been suspended.