The immediate reaction to ‘the obviously uncalled for, brute and illegal behavior of PSI Sudin Redkar of Sanguem, as he kicked a relative/friend and accomplice of a person who had just died while on a picnic at the backwaters of the Selaulim dam was shock and anger, resulting in the cop’s immediate transfer to the Reserve battalion.
An inquiry has been ordered, and while officially, the government shall wait for the conclusion of the probe, it is clear from the moving pictures (we have phone cameras everywhere) that Sudin Redkar made a serious case for selection in the FC Goa team for the next season, if it wasn’t for the fact that he was actually kicking someone in his time of grief and shock, having just lost a companion, in a tragic incident of drowning, with the deceased body a lying a few feet away.
This kicking cop, had arrived on the scene after being informed of this tragic incident. While doing the panchnama he sought to know the details of the deceased. According to ground reports, one of his friends/ accomplices was not quite forthcoming with the details which resulted in the irate PSI panting a hard kick on him, with a natural sense of entitlement.
So for this PSI and so many others who enter the force with this sense of entitlement, they get, perhaps from their political benefactors, hitting, abusing and kicking is part of the job and perfectly within their own service manual.
Before we go further, here is an important rider. Not everyone in the constabulary behaves in this manner. The Goa police has, and does consist of a crop of fine men and officers who go out of their way to serve in the manner in which service is truly felt or recognised. But when PSI Sudin Redkar and their crop that do their duty in this manner, they bring the force and the state down to a level from which it is difficult to rise.
The rot truly lies in not following systems and procedures laid down for every aspect of police functioning starting from recruitment. The Police Establishment Board, under the overall supervision of the Director General of Police is meant to handle transfers and positing and have an important role in who comes into the force. What really happens is that decisions on recruitment, many on political lines are taken elsewhere, infusing the police barracks, stations, outposts with recruits who have been favoured. With promotion avenues limited the lower to mid lower level of cops float in this ecosystem for years by which they devise their own ground rules of working, which are not subject to any supervision. It is this system that creates a Sudin Redkar.
It doesn’t quite matter that Redkar’s kick did not seriously injure his victim. But that is only superficial. The young man will never forget this and will grow up having this mental scar for no crime at all.
The sensitisation of Goa’s police force has been a felt need for long with no implementation. We need humane cops to enter the force through right means and work in a culture of “people first”, which would include keeping their mouths shut to prevent foul language and their legs in control so that the innocent are not kicked around.
