Margao PSI Nilesh Shirwaiker Suspended Over Alleged Custodial Assault in Navelim Case

Police Sub-In spector (PSI) Nilesh Shirwai ker, attached to the Margao Police Station, has been suspended by the South Goa police department following allegations of custodial as sault. The suspension order was issued on Thursday by South Goa Superintendent of Police (SP) Tikam Singh Verma, pending a depart mental inquiry. According to police sourc es, the action was taken after Shirwaiker allegedly assaulted a Navelim resi dent, Edberg Pereira, while he was in police custody. A senior officer conducted a preliminary inquiry into the incident, and the report was subsequently submitted to the SP, who then ordered Shirwaiker’s suspension. Preliminary findings re portedly found the officer guilty, and a full departmen tal inquiry will now follow. It is not yet known who will head the inquiry. The incident occurred on October 22, when Pereira was picked up from Navelim after police received a com plaint that he was creating a nuisance in a public place while intoxicated. He was taken to the Margao Police Station, where he was al legedly assaulted during an altercation with the police. Pereira sustained a head injury and was later shift ed to Goa Medical College and Hospital, Bambolim, for treatment. He is fighting for his life, as he undergoes a brain surgery for brain swelling and hemorrhaging. The case has been clas sified as assault. According to reports, Pereira suffered a blood clot in the brain. Family members have al leged that he was brutally beaten in custody and have demanded a thorough in vestigation. AAP leader Pratima Coutinho, who met the fam ily, condemned the alleged assault and questioned how the police could “take the law into their own hands.” She claimed that Pereira was hit with a hard object, causing his head to bleed, and that he was chained and beaten while in custody. Coutinho said the injured man’s medical expenses should be borne by the po lice officer concerned, add ing that “no one, whether a police officer, judge, or an yone else, has the right to take the law into their own hands.