Team Herald
PANJIM: Goa Police has ordered regular departmental action against two police sub inspectors in connection with the assault on football fan Lester D’Souza and his parents that occurred post the ISL match at Nehru Football Stadium a week ago.
Director General of Police Muktesh Chander ordered the action against PSIs Raunak Kadam and Dattaprasad Toraskar based on an enquiry report submitted by the Margao SDPO on Wednesday.
“As a member of disciplined force, their conduct of losing temper in public is not acceptable. The two PSIs will face regular departmental action under the Goa Police (Punishment and Appeals) Rules,” Inspector General of Police Jaspal Singh told Herald after a meeting with DGP on Thursday evening.
The police chief had earlier this week directed the Margao SDPO to enquire into the incident after Goa Pradesh Youth Congress Committee petitioned him demanding a thorough inquiry into the “inhuman manner” in which the local police treated Lester and his parents. Fatorda Police had also arrested the trio although they were released on bail later.
The enquiry report, sources said, mentions that while police personnel followed the protocol of dispersing the crowd after the match concluded, the two PSIs should not have lost their cool during the process. “It is not correct to handle a situation violently when the matter can be resolved in another way. The two PSIs chose to act in the manner not accepted in a disciplined force. They could have tackled the situation in a proper way,” a police official at Fatorda police station said.
It has been alleged that Lester was dragged onto the football field where he was repeatedly and mercilessly assaulted until he dropped to the ground, unconscious. The incident took place when Lester and his parents tried to click photographs of the players at the stadium, after the match between FC Goa and Delhi Dynamos.
