Animals in uniform still roam here
The state has failed again. Close to four years after one Cypriano Fernandes, was thrashed in the Panjim lockup leading to his death, seventy-year-old Abida Beig lies in the Goa Medical College, her jaw broken, with bruises all over her body and no one to look after her.
Her assaulter, again a man in uniform, Amjad Karol, a constable from Bicholim attacked her mercilessly for reasons that are still not clear. Karol has been suspended and arrested while she has nowhere to go since living alone at home is not an option as she needs constant care and above all, protection from the state.
As she battled for her life, villagers pooled in to pay the four hundred rupees for daily care givers. Ordinary Goans should be numb and angry. Does anyone get this? Here is a senior citizen almost killed by a police constable and the state does not even pay for a care giver. The trauma does not end here. Attempts to send her to an old age home have been stymied as the rules say that they need a police report. So what stops a police report being prepared?
If many phones can be picked up to stop police action against sons of former ministers who crash cars or deal with drugs, can’t the health minister pick up his phone to ensure that an elderly women beaten by a policeman, gets care and post trauma rehabilitation. Does Minister Laximikant Parsekar know what it is. And in case we have forgotten, Goa has a chief secretary, the chief executive of the administration who has the powers to fix this. In fact, even the north goa collector and the SP can fix this if this is indeed a priority.
A civilized state is on display when it behaves responsibly when one of its own turns against its common citizens, by taking coercive action against government officials who perpetrate these crimes. What really happens is that citizens get crushed under the weight of government machinery and lose the fight against the system even before they start. Cyprino Fernandes of Moira had one human rights activist who brought the police to its knees by revealing explosive information about the manner in which he was tortured and the grave inconsistencies in the versions of the police. This led to an FIR of murder against all officials of the Panjim police station on the fateful night when Cypriano was killed. For over two years nothing happened.
Abida Beig is alive but only just another number in a long list of people who have fallen to state oppression. But the fight must go on. Beyond giving Beig care and protection. And this is how:
– Have fast track courts to hear cases of police/ state atrocities and dispose them in a time bound manner
– If there is clear evidence of foul play, policemen should be dismissed from service with all benefits including post retirement ones cancelled. They may be reinstated only after the first court gives them a clean chit. This will ensure that the accused push for speedy trials
– Establishment of a state human rights commission that takes over such cases at inception with the powers to dictate and supervise the course of investigation
– A corpus fund to take care of even high-end private treatment of victims as well as a lifelong monthly survival allowance
– A massive sensitisation programme of the police force across all arms and ranks, which will also include a minimum compliance of human rights standards at entry level. This should be measurable and linked to the annual performance reports of all policemen and officers
Then and only then will humans triumph over brutes in uniform.
