TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: In a horrific incident that has dragged the Goa police under the spotlight for all the wrong reasons, the Calangute police have been accused of mercilessly beating up a 19-year-old male student, John Fernandes, in the women’s lock up, and then trying to hush up the case. The boy was picked up by the Calangute police on Sunday last for being allegedly involved in a theft in a hotel, with no evidence or even a complaint, according to family members.
The mother of the boy was also pressurized into signing an undertaking that he was not arrested and the injuries were caused by some miscreants beating her son up, on the threat that he would not be released otherwise. The mother claimed that she was forced to sign on a blank piece of paper and was not shown the undertaking drafted by the police later.
The next morning on Monday, it was only after the mother signed on an ‘undertaking’ that the boy was released. The aggrieved mother Delima Fernandes argues that she was not explained what was written on the paper but she was forced to sign it to get her son treated for serious injuries. “I was told that on the paper it had been written that it was not the police but the local boys who beat John. I don’t understand English well and it was not even explained to me,” she said.
The agony of the boy, a student of Don Bosco, Mapusa, and his family, did not end here. Inspite of clear visible evidence (see photograph) of him sustaining serious injuries, including a suspected shoulder dislocation, Goa Medical College doctors declared him “fit” in the medical report. The victim family alleges that this was due to police pressure.
Delima and the boy’s aunt, Angela Vaz, narrated the ordeal to Herald, recalling that on Sunday noon the 19-year-old was enroute to Church to attend a youth meeting when three people dragged him to the police station without explaining what crime he was involved in.
“They picked John from the house gate, took him in the police jeep, kicked and beat him with a leather belt in front of women prisoners in the lock up. When my son asked why he was brought to the police station, the constables accused him of stealing two mobile phones and Rs 2,000 cash from a hotel in Calangute,” the mother said.
The boy demanded evidence and an FIR copy of the theft case, which he was refused and instead he was beaten up even more. Fernandes alleged that her son was stripped naked and hung upside down.
His family members, accompanied by a group of Gauravado residents, from where the victim hails, rushed to the concerned hotel and demanded that the management show them the CCTV footage. “We saw that a man walks down the stairs and picks up the mobile phones and cash from a table. The man did not look like my son from any angle. Despite this the police did not admit their mistake and refused to release him,” Angela, who led a delegation to the Inspector General of Police Sunil Garg seeking justice on Wednesday, said.
Angela alleged that the Deputy Superintendent of Police Nelson Albuquerque politely refused to take action on the complaint lodged against the policemen who brutalised the boy. The Calangute police have also not registered the complaint filed by Fernandes family.
In another attempt to hush up the case, Angela alleged that a panch member from Calangute asked them to withdraw their complaint against the Calangute police. “He sent Rs 15,000 asking not to go ahead with the case. Later on, we got a call from a ward member asking why were we pursuing the case and accept the money,” she said.
The 12th standard student, who was also preparing for the ensuing Board exams on March 2, has been earning income for his family by conducting dance classes after his school hours. He has also been a winner of many competitions. With severe injuries, on his hand and body, he is in no position to appear for his board examinations.
