PANJIM: Goa Police’s very controversial officer Sagar Ekoskar has once again grabbed the headlines in what, the people of Pissurlem if not elsewhere feel, is contrary to the department’s motto on strengthening police-public relations.
A year after his act of alleged high-handedness during the agitation against the now-scrapped Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) project at Melauli, Ekoskar this time is accused of assaulting a farmer activist. Surely, his name Sagar – meaning Ocean – attracts him to an ocean of controversies, based on a history of controversial incidents.
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As this behaviour left his department red-faced, DGP Indra Dev Shukla ordered an inquiry into the incident. Apart from media reports, the department’s internal findings also purportedly found him involved, prompting an official inquiry.
Incidentally, Ekoskar was just recently promoted to the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police and given charge of the Valpoi subdivision. While he made headlines over five times since 2011 as Police Inspector, the assault on activist Hanumant Parab is his first since promotion in January 2022. Parab was brutally beaten allegedly by some policemen, including the DySP, last weekend while leading a group of Pissurlem villagers to protest transportation and dumping of iron ore on their fields without following the High Court directives.
From suspension for threatening his superior to being sent on leave for allegedly assaulting a former panch, Ekoskar has been a bad boy of nearly every police chief.
In 2011, then DGP Aditya Arya suspended the PI for allegedly misbehaving with a senior officer. It was alleged that PI Ekoskar threatened a DySP, prompting the latter to complain to the DGP leading to the PI’s suspension.
In 2018, while posted at Sanguem Police Station, Ekoskar was accused of assaulting panch member Janu Zore in the lockup because of which Zore was admitted to hospital. The incident occurred when Zore along with his brother, a lawyer, and another man visited the PI at Sanguem PS to settle a dispute.
Just before this, Ekoskar had been in the news for allegedly shielding a police sub-inspector in one Amit Naik assault case.
After a lull of two years, Ekoskar has given the State at least three controversial memories. The first was in July 2020 when he ordered his staff to detain four tribal persons moments before a group of villagers were to address a press conference against the proposed IIT project in Guleli. The reason he cited was the enforcement of Section 144 CrPC due to increased COVID-19 cases pan-India; whereas angry villagers pointed out the violation of safety guidelines by the policemen themselves. Ekoskar released the detained villagers following a backlash from various quarters. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant was forced to ask for a report.
Just when things were subsiding, on December 2, 2020, the then PI allegedly assaulted and abused sarpanch Suresh Madkar while the locals were agitating against the iron ore transportation issue at Solye. He also arrested Madkar after which irate locals gathered outside the Honda Police outpost demanding Ekoskar’s suspension.
The PI apologised but ex-DGP Mukesh Kumar Meena ordered a departmental inquiry and directed Ekoskar to go on eight days leave. The fate of this inquiry is not known yet.
In the first week of January 2021, he was dragged into another controversy with allegations that he stomped on women protestors. The department did not initiate action against him, though the police filed an FIR against the protestors.
With farmers of Pissurlem not willing to step back till action against him is taken for brutally beating up farmer activists for protesting against mining mud being dumped on their fields, Sagar Ekoskar once again finds himself in very turbulent waters.
