A villager from Malake Island in Fiji has revealed that he saw serial rapist and self-confessed murderer Dip Chand raping a crying 13-year old girl on the island in June 2003.
The Fiji Times quotes Aca Boyasawa as saying Chand had kissed his feet and begged him not to report the incident because the victim's father would kill him.
Mr Boyasawa says Chand offered him his fishing boat with an engine, a fishing net, the equivalent of 60 US dollars in cash and his catch of fish if he kept the rape a secret.
Mr Boyasawa says he did not accept the offer but promised Chand he would not report the incident provided Chand did not re-offend.
That rape occurred on the same beach where Chand took the three teenage Lata sisters 11 days ago and then confessed he murdered them.
Mr Boyasawa says when he heard about Chand accompanying the three missing sisters to the island, he went to the police and gave them his story.
A senior police official, Vijay Singh, is quoted as saying that they cannot charge Mr Boyasawa for not reporting a crime.
But prominent Suva Lawyer, Richard Naidu, says under Fiji's Penal Code, any person who conceals or compounds a felony is guilty of a misdemeanour and Mr Boyasawa could be charged.
