from Ares
for Daijiworld Media Network - Panaji (GA)

Panaji, Jul 11: Goa chief minister Digamber Kamat has asked the state police to give detailed report on the allegations of racial abuse leveled against the department.

"I have asked the director general of police to give report in the matter. They (Consulate) has placed some issue which will be investigated," Kamat said.

The chief minister said that he would be able to comment on the issue only after going through the detailed report. 

The consulate general for Russian federation in Mumbai had written letter to Goa CM stating that they are considering to issue adverse travel advisory against the tourist state after couple of incidents of assault and abuse on their citizens here.

The consulate had seriously taken up the issue of alleged assault on Russian ladies – one of them owning hotel at Calangute in North Goa. 

"We are most sure that such incidents do harm the image of Goa in Russia on the threshold of coming tourist season and may initiate considering a possibility of preparing some recommendations or travel advisory for Russian tourists who want to visit Goa," acting consul general Irina K Bashkirova had said.

Goa attracts around four lac foreign tourists annually, of which Russians count for second highest. The UK tourists are biggest chunk of foreigners who descend on the sandy Goan beaches to soak in the sun.

The Russian consulate is reportedly disturbed over the incident that happened in the last week of June when brother-sister duo – Joseph and Jenniffer Coutinho – allegedly assaulted 28-year-old Russian lady Oxana Chernetsova and another lady.

Chernetsova is running a hotel in Calangute and she had lodged complaint with the local police alleging that brother-sister duo abused Russians calling them as `prostitutes' and asked them to 'get out of India.'

"It is our concern that the Russian citizens were assaulted on the basis of national and racial intolerance," the consul general had said.

The Russian consulate on earlier occasion had raised concern about safety of its citizen in the state after few cases of assault were reported.

"Referring to our previous letters the consulate general expresses its concern upon the security situation in Goa that may endanger the safety and health of Russian nationals," the letter stated.