Team Herald
SANGUEM: While it is the duty of the police to help the public when tragedy strikes, a row over jurisdiction of the place of an accident literally left the lifeless body of a 13-year-old boy at Sanguem’s Cotarli village floating in a water body for over three hours.
On Wednesday afternoon, Suresh Jadhav, a Class IX student of Union High School, drowned in Selaulim Canal, where he had gone for a swim with his friend.
Immediately after being informed about the incident, panchayat member of Uguem Vithal Gaonkar intimated the Sanguem police and the Curchorem fire brigade officials, who arrived at the site shortly.
However, instead of removing the child’s body out of the water, the men in khaki and the fire brigade officials raised the issue of jurisdiction, claiming the place of the incident comes under the Quepem police station.
The locals gathered at the site castigated the police, calling their fight over jurisdiction a cruel joke, as the boy’s body was left floating in the cold water for over three hours.With no help coming from the police, the body was fished out of the canal late in the evening, with the help of a local Francisco Barretto, who removed the body in less than five minutes. Sanguem police said they had no authority to act in the matter as it was not within their jurisdiction.
