PANJIM: They arrived in Goa to make sweet memories, but the family members from Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, left the coastal State with bitter memories after being “harassed” by the Agasaim Police.

Vijay Pratap Singh, a tourist, was stopped at a nakabandi in Agasaim at around 11.30 am on April 19, while he was driving to the airport in a jeep he had hired for the duration of his four-day stay in Goa. Singh, who had flight to catch, was accompanied by his wife and two children, aged one year and the other eight.

As the ‘self-drive’ car he had hired was a private vehicle, with a white licence plate, the Agacaim cops – two constables and one senior hawaldar – asked him to unload his luggage and his family and leave the vehicle at the police station.

Recalling the harrowing ordeal, Singh said, “Police stopped us on the highway and asked us to get out of the car. We were stranded on the highway. The police said that they don’t care even if we miss our flight and asked us to leave the car outside. They asked me to leave the car on the highway itself, but I refused and I took the car to the premises of the police station. I am sure CCTV footage must be available with them.”

“My wife was scared…my son had a fever and he was on medicine at that time. It was a harrowing experience. We always knew that the police were there to help people, but we were harassed and kicked out of our car. We were treated like criminals,” he said.

Singh said he even requested the police to issue a challan if he had violated any law so that they could proceed to the airport, but instead they asked him to unload his luggage and family and leave the car.

“As they had the car registration number and all other details, I requested them not to detain the car, but they refused. They could have issued challan. The police also wanted the key of the jeep, but we didn’t give them the key,” he said.

Singh then arranged a cab on his own for the airport. Singh claimed that the particular cab driver witnessed the ordeal that his family was put through while he was loading the luggage in his taxi.

“When you are travelling with your family, and that too with a one-year-old infant, and policemen behave like that is really unacceptable. How can they even think of such uncouth behaviour? I have travelled the world over and also to several States in the country, but I have never ever witnessed such hostile and inhuman behaviour from the police,” Singh told O Heraldo.

“Goa is known for its beautiful places and hospitality. We always believed that Goans are very nice and hospitable, which they are. But the first-hand experience with the police was shocking and unpleasant. They will ruin the reputation of Goa. It appears that they don’t want us to visit this beautiful State again,” he said.

While stating that he has written to the top brass of the Goa Police, Singh said that he will do everything to get justice for his family and the car owner, from whom the Agacaim police allegedly took Rs 5,000 to release the car.

He expressed his gratitude to O Heraldo for highlighting the ordeal his family was put through and to push for action against ‘corrupt’ policemen.