SATURDAY, MAY 04, 2024
In a chilling episode, a senior police officer attacked a youth, the son of a senior media person, mercilessly at a traffic junction in Porvorim close to midnight on the intervening night of July 12/13, for jumping red light.
The incident occurred on July 12 when the victim identified as Siddhant Raul, son of senior photojournalist Tulshidas Raul of the Tarun Bharat Marathi daily, was returning to Panjim from Mapusa. He had jumped the red light in the midst of heavy rainfall near the First Cry showroom after Damian de Goa, in Porvorim, when a cop’s car overtook him, and a policeman allegedly dragged him out, kicked him, and punched him repeatedly in the face.
Police brutality in the country is a well-known fact, especially deaths inside police lockups. The image of cops is that of corrupt assaulters, who help the people less and harass them more. Exceptions are always there. There are numerous dedicated police officers and constables who are genuinely doing a great service to the people. But every now and then, cases of police brutality come up, which send shivers down the spine of common people.
Harassment of tourists by Goa Traffic Police is very common in Goa. Almost every tourist has a story of police harassment to tell. Recently, Goa Police issued order directing Sub-Divisional Police Officers (SDPOs), Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) (Traffic), in-charges of traffic cells and police stations to ensure that henceforth vehicles should be stopped only if there are visible traffic violations.
It was also instructed that the violators should be fined only by DySPs (Traffic), SDPOs or inspectors. DGP Jaspal Singh reviewed the functioning of the traffic unit recently and directed that only visible violations be punished and vehicles, particularly of tourists, should not be stopped.
During the ongoing Monsoon Session of Goa Legislative Assembly, MLAs had demanded that Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, who also holds the home portfolio, should give directions to police not to unnecessarily harass tourists who come to Goa.
But it seems all these have fallen on deaf ears of the policemen on the ground. Instances of serious crimes like rape, murder, robbery and road accidents are making headlines almost every day. But instead of curbing the crime incidents in our State, the policemen are spotted harassing the common man, even resorting to alleged brutality suffered by Siddhant Raul.
The police top brass has to find out what happened that night and bring the offenders to book. They can’t get away scot-free. The culprits must be severely punished and set an example out of them.
Police force in the country suffers from a huge trust deficit. Every now and then we get to hear about the need for police reforms. But those reforms are only on paper. Nothing is seen on the ground.
Starting from abusive behaviour towards the complainant, refusing to file a FIR, not handing over FIR copy to complainant, botching up investigations under influence of money or political pressure – the list of lacunae in the police force is endless.
The malice is too deep rooted for anyone to rectify it now. Hefty bribes are demanded and paid for getting recruited in the police force. From there starts the slide because once the recruit joins the force as a commissioned officer or a constable, he looks at the service as a mechanism to recover his cost. And this cost is recovered from none other than the common man. The nexus between police, politicians and goons is also a well-known fact.
The entire policing system has to be overhauled. If needed, the government should hire services of counsellors for mental conditioning of the policemen and women who don the khaki. They need to be told repeatedly that they are public servants, not their masters. There has to be more interactions between the police top brass and the force personnel. There has to be more initiatives from the force and the government to make the offenders more accountable.
Uncivilised behaviour is unacceptable from anyone in a civilised society. This should be made clear to all government and private entities.
