AUGUSTO RODRIGUES
DEULWADO, MANDREM: Sixteen days after he was unceremoniously shunted out, Sherif Jacques has been reinstated as the Police Inspector of Mandrem Police station.
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He is the third police officer who has been part of a familiar and by now predictable procedure – whenever there is a hue and cry about a particular criminal case, the police inspector is shunted out for some time before he is brought back quietly. Jacques was transferred after the attack on ex-Mandrem sarpanch Mahesh Konadkar on December 4.
Back in October, Calangute PI Paresh Naik was moved out after a fracas outside a Baga nightclub, but took back charge after eight days. Earlier this year, Anjuna PI Prashal Desai was suspended in the Assagao house demolition case.
He was then posted as PI of Crime Branch after five months.
The repeated incidents show that policemen often become pawns in a larger political game even as the morale of the force goes for a toss due to such repeated transfers. As for the public the police are supposed to protect, they are left feeling vulnerable.
“If the PIs have been transferred because they have done something wrong, they need to be punished for it. But, if they are transferred for political reasons, which is what it appears to be, that makes a mockery of the men who are supposed to be our protectors,” reasons Alirio Lobo, enterpreneur from Calangute.
“Trnsferring a officer and bringing him back without an inquiry makes a joke of the system and definitely demoralises the morale of not only the officers affected but sends a wrong signal to the rest. There should be clarity as to why they were transferred in the first place,” thinks Lazaro Britto from Ashvem, Mandrem.
“By transferring and reinstating them without any plausible reason, the government is actually making a fool of them and themselves too. What will people start thinking of such officers?” wonders Lobo.
“Our PI Jacques was transferred all of a sudden and he has now been brought back. Why was he transferred and why is he reinstated? The government needs to come clean on this,” argues Britto.
“As far as we are concerned, our PI was doing a good job until our ex- sarpanch was attacked, but his transfer hours after the attack left us surprised and it still lingers because we are unaware of what happened in the meanwhile,” says Tulsidas Mhambre from Mandrem.
“I was brutally beaten by six people , the PI was transferred and the culprits were arrested and released within 24 hours. I am still feeling the trauma and the attackers are free. I wonder what sort of democracy we live in,” wonders former Mandrem sarpanch Mahesh Konadkar.
