BY GERARD DE SOUZA
gerard@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: What gives the police the right to attack two young boys and damage their property including a jeep and a mobile phone, irrespective of the circumstances?
A complainant Anzineil Kandolkar has accused the police of assaulting him and his friend and damaging their jeep in the wee hours of February 26 near the Santa Monica jetty during a nakabandi.
The police instead allege that it was the boys who attacked them and tore their shirts, grabbed their rifles. The police constables on duty have filed a complaint against the boys saying that they assaulted them first after they were stopped. The boys allege the complaint is false.
According to the complaint filed before the Panjim Police station, Azineil Kandolkar, who was travelling with his friend Mauvin Mesquita to Panjim, has alleged that the police constables on duty first slapped him and later destroyed his smart phone as well as the jeep they were travelling in.
He was stopped at the Santa Monica point by the police party comprising P P Shet (buckle No. 6062). When asked for his license, he handed over the same. He was then asked for his vehicle papers which he didn’t have.
“I asked the constable to issue me a challan, which the constable refused. I reminded the constable that I have fifteen days within which to produce the documents but he refused to return my licence,” Kandolkar said in his complaint.
“At this point Shet retorted by saying show your smartness at home and slapped me hard in my face and his companion pointed a gun in my face,” Kandolkar said.
“I managed to record a part of the episode on my phone and asked the policeman Shet to repeat what he said,” Kandolkar narrated.
“Sensing that he was caught on camera he panicked and called for reinforcement saying that he was being attacked,” Kandolkar said.
When the reinforcement did arrive, they were again punched and taken to the police station following which they were admitted to Goa Medical College in a , bleeding state and were discharged after treatment.
Their complaint has not been registered by the police, who instead have written to them that the contents are “being cross checked during investigation (of the complaint filed by the constables against the boys)… and if there is any prima facie evidence against the police personnel… then necessary action will be taken against the said police personnel.”
In their complaint against the boys, the police have alleged that the boys grabbed them by the shirt, were smoking in public, created nuisance when they were stopped and further were recording the police on their mobile phone.
The mobile phone was smashed by the police in the melee.
In his complaint the constable Purshottam Shet has alleged that the back number plate of the jeep was missing and hence he sought the papers from the two boys in the jeep.
However, herald is in possession of the photograph supplied by the two boys which showed that the police have vandalized the back number plate, besides also broken mirrors, side lights and dented the jeep.
“It is very evident that the police were angry because we were recording them and then came to attack us. “‘You want to ruin my life, I’ll ruin yours,’ one of the policemen said to me,” Kandolkar told Herald alleging that the entire complaint filed by the police is to cover up their acts of assault.
