PI kicked Cipriano to see if he was conscious: witness
HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, JAN 22
Call it shockingly shocking or a human rights violation. Kenneth Silveira, who spoke fearlessly to Herald giving an account of what he had seen at the Panjim Police Station on January 8 between 10.45 am to 12.45 pm spoke yet again about the police brutality on Cipriano.
Addressing media persons at a briefing called by Benaulim MLA Mickky Pacheco, Silveira, a businessman, recalling the incidents of January 8 at the Panjim PS, said he saw PSI Vijay Chodankar and PI Sandesh Chodankar taking turns to see if Cipriano was conscious by kicking his lifeless body lying on the ground.
Silveira said he was arrested under Section 151 of Cr Pc (preventive arrest) and was kept in the same room where Cipriano was lying unconscious. “Soon after the PSI and PI had checked on unconscious Cipriano to see whether there were movements I heard an ambulance siren, probably a 108 van,” he recalled.
He said after the arrival of the ambulance, Cipriano was taken and a labourer who was also detained in the same room was asked to clean the froth from Cipriano’s mouth that was on the ground, he mentioned.
Silveira, who was patted for speaking without fear, said he had received some two calls from a male to keep his mouth shut over Cipriano and made an offer of Rs 50 lakh. He said he tried calling that number again but couldn’t get through.
The witness alleged the Panjim police had detained him illegally in the harassment case. Finally, I was released at 5.30 pm from the police station, he said.
