Team Herald
PANJIM: Activists and Opposition politicians have slammed the unceremonious transfer of senior IPS officer Sunita Sawant from her post as South Goa SP even as theories abound as to what could have led to the axe falling on her.
In fact, Sawant had received the Special Recognition Award on Republic Day for her planning skills and for ensuring the peaceful conduct of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Goa. Two days later, on the night of January 28, when she was removed from her post, via wireless message issued by Goa Police top brass, the decision was met with mixed reactions of anger, confusion and speculation.
The wireless message, sent from the police control room in the wee hours of Tuesday, asked her to vacate the office and report to the police headquarters, Panjim, immediately – going against court guidelines that recommend a minimum three-year posting for SPs.
A few hours before her transfer was effected, SP Sawant had issued a private message to all police stations in her jurisdiction, directing inspectors to gather information on the movements of senior functionaries of the Bajrang Dal.
“There were rumblings about activities planned by the Bajrang Dal in Goa. The SP wanted to clamp down on any potential communal unrest before it occurred; so she had sent a private message asking for intel. It seems that this message, meant only for the PIs under her command, got leaked and led to her transfer,” a police officer told O Heraldo, on the condition of anonymity.
Was SP Sawant betrayed by her own colleagues?
The officer is known to be a strict boss and insisted on meeting all South Goa police station in-charges at the Margao headquarters at least once a week. She is also known to be tough on cops who deviate from protocol, or act on orders from their political bosses.
Just last weekend, Sawant had come down heavily on cops from the Sanguem police station, who allegedly went to the house of an accused person at 1 am and harassed his wife. The case against the Sanguem man, a Youtuber was a bailable offence, and there was no reason for the police to search the accused person's house until 3 am and behave rudely with his family members, said the source.
The wife of the accused, who was at home with her elderly mother-in-law, posted the exchange on social media, prompting SP Sawant to enquire into the case and take action against the high-handed behaviour of her subordinates, who were in turn reportedly acting under pressure from a local politician.
During this same eventful week, SP Sawant and her team received accolades for cracking the kidnapping and gang rape of a mentally challenged woman at Vasco – the accused in this case were arrested within a few hours of the crime being reported.
Sources say Sawant was a thorn in the flesh for a few corrupt cops, who blindly did the bidding of industrialists and MLAs from South Goa. The Opposition Congress on Wednesday slammed the Goa government for the unusual move and called it “an act of intimidation against an honest officer who was merely doing her job.”
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant told reporters on Wednesday that he did not have the details about the SP’s transfer yet, which begs the question, if the CM, who also holds the Home Department portfolio, was not aware, who issued the wireless message for her transfer?
Former State Election Commissioner and political analyst Prabhakar Timble said, “Police department and home department are now saying that if you require protection do not come to us. Do not even go to police station. You visit the Bajrang Dal office. This is the message being conveyed by this transfer. Everyone knows that Bajrang Dal activists take law in their hand and provide protection.”
Goa Forward Party (GFP) President and MLA Vijai Sardesai said, “This is not surprising. There is no guarantee of anybody. Nobody has an idea what is going to happen during the next two years. Such a situation has been created that nobody knows what will happen tomorrow.”