PANJIM: An assault of the most merciless kind by two cops gone rogue-one by a DySP level officer Nerlon Albuquerque has been reported.
In this chilling episode, a senior police officer attacked a youth, the son of a senior media person, mercilessly at a traffic junction in Porvorim close to midnight on the intervening night of July 12/13, for jumping red light.
The incident occurred on July 12 when the victim identified as Sid-dhant Raul, son of senior photojournalist Tulshidas Raul of the Tarun Bharat Marathi daily, was returning to Panjim from Mapusa. He had jumped the red light in the midst of heavy rainfall near the First Cry showroom after Damian de Goa, in Porvorim, when a cop’s car over-took him, and policeman dragged him out, kicked him, and punched him repeatedly in the face. For good measure, another policeman man, reportedly his driver joined him in the act and forced him to stand in the rain while the cops, after their hit job, went to relax in their car.
While he could not identify the officer then, the victim complainant said that the officer landed up at the Porvorim Police Station shortly after. He then read the nametag on the cop’s uniform- Nerlon Albuquerque (DySP Anti Narcotics Cell)
In a police complaint prepared by the youth but not inwarded at the Porvorim Police Station, he alleged that he crossed the traffic signal and missed the red light as it was raining heavily. “Suddenly one police car overtook and stopped me …one police officer got down from his car, opened my door and started kicking me, then he pulled me out of my car and without asking anything, started slapping me on my face,” he then goes on to say another police person too got down from the car and started beating him.
“The moment I spoke they slapped me and didn’t give me chance to speak”, he wrote.
Later, meeting Herald, the victim reconfirmed the contents of the com-plaint letter.
He told the cops to issue a challan and take his licence but they forced him to stand in the rain while they went back to their car.
Crucially Porvorim DySP Vishwesh Karpe said, “The complainant had come to the Porvorim Police Station. But he did not file his complaint informing them that they would first visit the ANC police station to check.”
The father of the victim photojournalist Tulshidas Raul denies this completely, he said that his brother and son were made to wait till 4 am in the police station but their complaint was not accepted. “I’m shaken by this highhandedness”, he said.
A civil Service officer saw the incident and asked the cops why they were thrashing the young man. The cop retorted, “Mind your own business.”
Meanwhile, the victim who is the son of a senior photojournalist of a vernacular daily told Herald that a civil service officer, who was re-turning home after attending the day’s Assembly session, noticed police beating the youth on the road and stopped his vehicle. He questioned the police officer why he was assaulting the youth and stated that if at all the young man had committed a traffic violation then to issue him a challan instead. To this, the brazen police officer told him to mind his own business even as the officer identified himself as a sub-divisional magistrate (SDM). The SDM then quietly proceeded to his destination.
In his complaint to DGP Jaspal Singh, Siddhant said, “There is a lot to say but this is more than enough. I cannot give you the exact timing, but I feel this is between 11.30 pm and 12.30 am.”
The shocked Siddhant called his uncle and narrated his sordid saga and asked him to come to the Porvorim Police Station. As he was narrating his incident to the police, he saw DySP Albuquerque surface from no-where and made his presence felt at the police station. (Albuquerque, has however denied that he went to the Porvorim police station)
In the complaint, Siddhant mentions this incident which is summarised below.
Siddhant’s uncle asked him the reasons for assaulting him. To this, the DySP said sharply, “I will ruin his (Siddhant’s) career if you dare to complain against me.” He also saw to it that no complaint was regis-tered against him.
With Porvorim Police not registering his complaint against the DySP, Siddhant has knocked at the doors of the DGP to seek justice. He has appealed to the DGP to look into the matter and to give him justice so that the men in khaki don’t take the law into their hands again.
