NAVIN JHA
navin@herald-goa.com
Mormugao: If there was any further proof needed about how criminal inmates of Sada jail, make calls to extort money and then pick up the extortion money at the jail premises itself, here’s proof
On September 22, 2014, when an undertrial Partha Prathinkar (25) attempted suicide in Vasco’s Sada sub jail premises, the lid came off of yet another criminal activity in Sada jail- extortion. Prathinkar was sent to the sub jail following his arrest in connection with rape of a minor girl which was reported at Bogmalo in January, 2014. Soon after his arrest, his parents started receiving calls, from other inmates in jail, demanding money from them. The parents, of very modest means, managed to scramble around Rs 50,000 in instalments during visits to see their son, with the same inmate receiving the amount every time.
With their son continuously harassed, the parents mustered courage to go and meet the Deputy Collector and sub-divisional magistrate, Mormugao, Gaurish Shankhwalkar, who is also the superintendent of Sada sub jail and told him that they have been receiving phone calls from a mobile phone from Sada jail asking for money to avoid their jailed son from being harassed.
They also complained to the Deputy Collector that the phone calls were made from the same cell where their son was kept and that they were even asked by the caller to listen to the voice of their son. The parents even said that they could identify the person, who received the money during their visit to the jail. The Deputy Collector did nothing. Soon they heard that their son had attempted suicide and was lying in his cell in an unconscious state. Luckily he was transferred to the GMC on time and his life was saved.
But there was no action against any jail official or the criminals who made calls and extorted money and led a young inmate to try and take his own life.
If Herald has dug these stories out and will continue to do more, isn’t the prison departments official stand “We can neither confirm nor deny what’s going on at Sada Jail”, completely farcical.
