The July 23, 2014
memorandum of the Home Department clarifying that the State Police Complaints Authority should not take suo moto congisance of complaints against policemen smacks of a gag order against an authority created to deal with cases of police brutality and criminality.Newspapers like Herald are particularly concerned because of their role as watchdogs. In fact Herald’s
expose and reportage in the custodial death of Cipriano Fernandes in 2011, led to the State
Police Complaints Authority, taking up the case and passing strictures on the policemen of the
Panjim Police Station.
Sandesh Chodankar was an officer in charge of a police station against whose officers
an FIR was filed for murder in custody of a seafarer Cipriano Fernandes and an investigation ordered by a Special Investigation Team. No arrests were made after the then Home Minister Ravi Naik announced on the floor of the House that action would be taken after a police
inquiry. That went on and even as the Crime Branch is currently handling the case, Chodankar is back in service along with two of his colleagues. Rajani alias Kalyani alias Babita
Gawde was killed in custody after she was accused of murdering a person. Inquiries revealed the discrepancies in the police version of events, leading to her arrest. Her subsequent torture in police custody allegedly with the knowledge of the then PI Harish Madkaikar was charged with giving false information. There is no information regarding the status of the
inquiry into this case. Madkaikar continues to serve in the Goa Police as PI. In the long list of policemen who have behaved like criminals, rapists and drunks indulging in forced sexual
behaviour, only two, who did partake in the sickening act of getting a woman to perform oral sex in a police jeep, were dismissed from service. Their accomplice, an IRB constable was suspended and reinstated. Everyone else has been suspended with a majority being reinstated.
Herald revisited a few of the cases, which were much talked about in the media, but now, public memory being as it is – have been erased from memory and the officers who were accused of misconduct are back in service after a slap on the wrist.
In the case of Camurlim where a woman – a mother-of-three had chilli powder stuffed in her private parts and beaten mercilessly by her neighbours and whose case was not registered under the proper sections until noise and inquiry by Herald resulted in the suspension of
assistant sub inspector Vithu Naik. But history proves that that’s as far as it will go.
However, Mapusa Police Inspector Tushar Vernekar has got away without any responsibility being fixed on him especially as the accused have been let out on bail within a week. His police station has been under the scanner in some other instances too, but he has emerged unscathed.
The Cipriano case in January 2011 too had some similarities. While three police officials including inspector Sandesh Chodankar, PSI Radesh Ramnathkar and head constable Sandip Shirvaikar were suspended; some alleged that one of the main persons – head constable Julio Diniz was not even touched. In May 2013, Diniz had also been accused of hushing up a
molestation complaint. The girl dared to speak against him, but his reported political
links got him out of any trouble.
Re-instatement after suspension is normal in the Goa Police department. The three suspended police officials in the Cipriano case were recently re-instated over three years later while in the Babita Gawde case, the police officer escaped with a mere transfer. PI Harishchandra
Madkaikar was transferred from Bicholim to Valpoi, though he was charged with providing false information about the case. This is not the end. Police Sub Inspector Vaibhav Naik,
who was not only suspended, but also arrested in an international counterfeit currency note case on July 31, 2011, was re-instated this year.
Besides, allegations against the then Mapusa PI Uttam Raut Desai for sheltering a driver constable who forced a 22-yearold woman to perform oral sex on him, also did not face any action. Constable Vishwa Vijay Parab, after sustained media campaign, was suspended and arrested later.
Another alleged rape case against PI Raju Raut Desai also caught Herald’s attention. There was neither any FIR against him nor disciplinary action and instead kept under wraps for almost a month. The then Inspector General of Police Sanjay Singh was asked by the then Director General of Police Dr Aditya Arya to carryout an internal inquiry after National Human Rights
Commission (NHRC) took cognizance of the case. The shameful incident allegedly
occurred in September 2011 when an Assamese woman, who was apparently related to a former police officer, was brought to Canacona Police Station for an enquiry and later allegedly raped by PI Desai. A few of them were even caught for their alleged involvement in sex scandals but the result is the same – suspension, FIR and re-instatement.
