The transfer of one police inspector in ‘public interest’, should not necessarily be the subject of the main editorial comment of this newspaper. However the sudden shifting of PI Nolasco Raposo from the Anti- Corruption Branch and sent to the CID centre in Mapusa to be replaced by another PI from the CID centre who was posted there because of illness, is another nail in the coffin of anti-corruption. While the ACB is indeed a puppet on a chain, it does try and do some good independent work when it gets a chance. But increasingly, even such few and far between forays of good honest work led by SP Bosco George (who unfortunately sullied his hands in trying to defend his buddy Atmaram Deshpande, in the PTS irregularities scam) has been crushed by the Parsekar government which has become a cheer leader of corruption.
So what really is in public interest in bringing in an officer who actually sought a transfer from Bicholim to a relatively light posting at the CID centre and ousting one of the most pro- active police inspectors in the Anti-Corruption Branch Nolasco Raposo? Well this is the interest, though it surely is not public. The ignorant public may not quite know that Raposo was one of the best trap officers of the Anti-Corruption Branch, who had lined up quite a trophy of corrupt officials he had trapped and nabbed, including a member of the Chief Ministers family, his brother-in-law Dilip Malvanakar, field officer of GIDC, caught red-handed while accepting bribe of rupees one lakh from pharmaceutical company to handover the industrial plot in Tuem industrial estate.
His other catches include a peon of Transport Director’s office Dattaram Gawade arrested while accepting one lakh rupees, obviously at the behest of his bosses, Assistant Transport Director Enforcement Wing Uday Gauns and one motor vehicles inspector and an Assistant Transport Director. Raposo didn’t even spare his own and caught the Police Inspector of Ponda Police Station Rahul Dhamshekar while accepting a bribe of a mere Rs 10,000.
But PI Raposo over did his good work, in real public interest. From the living room and the kitchen of corruption, he moved to its bedroom, i.e the system itself. Backed by his head of department, Raposo was conducting an inquiry into an alleged bribery case involving a St Inez builder and those who control the Panjim police. In this jurisdiction, an officer above the rank of SP was reportedly involved in a deal with a St Inez builder in whose project site a worker died due to a fall. This is when the full force of the political government which is acting to protect the corrupt was visible. An informal counter inquiry was ordered and a relatively new IPS officer Suman Goyal was entrusted with the dirty work on “inquiring” against ACB officers who dared to meddle and inquire into the alleged case of bribe taking in the case of the St Inez builder.
PI Raposo of ACB, was the obvious soft target and his transfer was inevitable.
The Anti-Corruption Bureau has been used as settling scores bureau by this government and its flashes of independent professional work are allowed only if no one in the established order is disturbed. The common man is clearly not a part of this established order. Members of the Chief Minister’s family, some pet officers and those who shake hands over a suitcase are the established order.
When the ACB does work according to the bidding of those running the government, as it did while protecting former SP of the Police Training School Atmaram Deshpande, no one interfered and the inquiry against him was allowed to slowly linger till the officer was transferred to Andaman and Nicobar Islands, shockingly as the head of that Union Territory’s Anti- Corruption wing.
PI Raposo’s shunting was because he went into areas the government found very uncomfortable. This, in a nutshell, is how farcical the governments zero-tolerance to corruption claim is.
