THURSDAY, MAY 09, 2024
PETER DE SOUZA
PANJIM: Threats, intimidation and extortion: All in a day’s work for the men in Khaki on Goa. The Porvorim DySP is investigating serious allegations of harassment and extortion levelled against police personnel from the Agasaim police station, by a family visiting the State from Delhi, and a Calangute-based businessman who had rented his jeep to the tourist family. Copies of the complaints available with O Heraldo recount the harrowing ordeal the family was put through after a traffic stop led to them being left stranded on the highway at Agasaim, while on the way to the airport.
O Heraldo has also obtained a copy of the jeep owner and extortion victim Nitesh Vengurlekar’s deposition complaint to the investigating officer, along with the incriminating screenshot of a GooglePay receipt from Vengurlekar, for a alleged bribe of Rs 5,000, he was allegedly instructed to transfer to an employee of a garage located opposite the Agasaim police station, by police constable Santosh.
In his email complaint to Goa’s DGP and IGP, Noida resident Vijay Pratap Singh said he was stopped at a nakabandi in Agasaim at around 11.30 am on April 19, while he was driving to the airport in a jeep he had hired for the duration of his four-day stay in Goa. Singh was accompanied by his wife and two children, aged one year and eight years. As the ‘self-drive’ car he had hired was a private vehicle, with a white licence plate, the Agasaim cops- two constables and one senior hawaldar-asked him to unload his luggage and his family and leave the vehicle at the police station to be picked up by the owner, Nitesh Vengurlekar.
“I was with my 1-year-old infant son and 8-year-old daughter. My son started crying and my daughter got frightened, my wife had a rough time consoling them but police personnel didn’t show any mercy and forced us to vacate the car on the highway with all the luggage. They told me that it’s not their responsibility if we miss our flight,” said Singh in his complaint. “I requested them even if they want to challan can they just drop us at the airport, but they refused,” he added.
The anguished family, after waiting in the heat, managed to hail a cab and get dropped at the airport but was left shaken by the insensitivity of the Goa police. “I have seen in movies how Goa police is friendly and always ready to help people who are in trouble and I had that image in mind every time I visited Goa,” Singh wrote, lamenting that his image was now shattered.
On receiving Singh’s complaint via e-mail, Vengurlekar told O Heraldo that he was summoned by the Porvorim DySP for clarity on the incident, and he narrated how the Agasaim police had demanded a bribe of Rs 20,000 from him.
In his deposition before the investigating officer, on May 3, Vengurlekar said he received a phone call from PI Vikram Naik of the Agasaim police station at 2 pm the same day, April 19, summoning him to the police station immediately. On reaching the police station, Vengurlekar was informed by a policeman, identified only as Santosh, that the PI was resting after returning from G20 bandobast duty, and he was made to wait for a few hours.
“At around 5 pm, PI Vikram Naik called me into his cabin and informed me that as I had given a private jeep for hire, he will send a report against me to RTO under Section 192. The PI further informed me that if I want to settle the matter at the police station level, without any adverse report or action, I had to pay Rs 20,000 to him. PI then told me to go out of the police station and speak to Santosh,” Vengurlekar recounted in his complaint to the investigating officer.
What followed next was a haggling dance,(as narrated by Vengurlekar) claiming he does not have the Rs 20,000 to spare, and policeman Santosh pushing for a payment of ‘at least Rs 10,000 to settle the matter.’
Vengurlekar then resorted to ‘using influence’ to get out of paying the bribe demanded. “Meantime, I phoned a well-wisher known to PI Vikram Naik and informed him about my problem. The well-wisher called PI Naik and requested him to settle the matter. At that time PI Naik was leaving his cabin and asked policeman Santosh to allow me to go,” says Vengurlekar.
However, Santosh allegedly continued bargaining with Vengurlekar, “Lastly, he told me to pay Rs 5,000 otherwise PI would scold him after that,” said Vengurlekar.
Vengurlekar told O Heraldo that the policeman’s modus operandi of accepting the bribe left him stunned. “As I did not have cash of Rs 5,000, I asked Santosh for his Google Pay number. Santosh then put his arm around me and took me to a garage opposite the Agasaim police station, and gave me the number of a person who works at the garage, and asked me to transfer the amount to his account,” he said. The screenshot of the Google Pay receipt of Rs 5,000 paid to one Khafil Shaikh is available with O Heraldo. He was then allowed to leave with his jeep.
Importantly Shaikh was summoned by the investigating officer, where he recorded his statement about whether it was cop Santosh who had asked Vengurlekar to transfer Rs 5,000 to his Google Pay account while adding that he immediately moved the amount to Constable Santosh’s account.
With an immediate inquiry ordered and statements being recorded, it appears that the men in Khaki in Agasaim will have to pay for the Google Pay extortion act.
When Agasaim PI Vikram Naik was contacted for his comments, he feigned ignorance about the matter, but nonetheless, he said that “if the constable has taken money, then it is a serious offence.”
