Finally, after nearly 30 years, courageous PSI Maralkar promoted to PI

VIBHA VERMA

vibha@herald-goa.com

PANJIM: Police Sub-Inspector (PSI) Sagar Maralkar’s fight against corruption involving some of his subordinates and officers, kept him waiting for three decades to get a promotion.

With more enemies than friends in his very own department, Maralkar’s dedication, passion and commitment to the noble profession was finally acknowledged by his superiors. The D-day finally arrived on January 13, 2021 when he was promoted to the rank of Police Inspector (PI). 

Perhaps for the first time in the history of the department, Indian Police Service (IPS) officers with one being the Director General of Police (DGP) pipped stars on the shoulders of a PI. “I congratulate PI Maralkar who was promoted today after nearly 30 long years of service as PSI. Welfare of staff is a priority for #goapolice and we are working sincerely on clearing backlog and other issues,” the official tweet of DGP Goa had posted with a photograph of DGP Mukesh Kumar Meena and Superintendent of Police (SP) Arvind Gawas doing the honours. 

A force of nearly 7,000 trained personnel, quite a few seniors – belonging to various ranks – will also have similar tales of delay in promotion but PI Maralkar’s story is very different. The officer has seen many of his colleagues, besides juniors in the department, being elevated to positions that he would have been in the present time. 

An anti-graft crusader, the PI started his career in May 1990 with his first posting in Wireless Unit of Goa Police. After a dig into his past, Herald learnt that the PI served in this unit for nearly 15 years, after which he was shunted to another unit and police stations at Vasco and Porvorim. Sources disclosed that his exposes marred his future prospects with counter complaints filed against him. Though he came out clean, these years were wasted tackling a slew of allegations.

Senior reporters covering the crime beat for many years, will also tell that the no-nonsense officer had resigned from his service following alleged harassment from some of his top bosses. However, superiors reinstated him after a lot of convincing. 

The shortage of staff in the Wireless Unit is also attributed to delayed promotion, until it came to the notice of police superiors. The unit that urgently needs around 1,000 staff, barely has a total strength of 250 personnel handling three sub-units. DGP Meena, sources said, has decided to enhance the working strength in the Wireless unit, which Maralkar currently heads as PI. 

Incidentally, another PSI in the Wireless Unit has served 26 years of service sans promotion.