Old Goa Police Conduct: Legal notice served on CS & DGP

Panaji, Sep 26 (UNI) An NGO 'Utt Goenkara' today demanded immediate disciplinary action against the Police Inspector of Old Goa Police Station Vishwesh Karpe for grave dereliction of duty in filing a case against state Health Minister Viswajit Rane and his wife Divya Rane.

In a legal notice served on the state Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police today, NGO spokesperson and Advocate Rodrigues stated that the conduct of Mr Karpe in unduly delaying the registration of the FIR and ''dragging his feet'' in the investigation was not acceptable.

He said all persons were treated equally under the law and the Health Minister, by virtue of his post, and his wife could not be exempted from the law.

Adv Rodrigues further stated that though the Supreme Court had consistently held that the police were bound to register an FIR expeditiously, Mr Karpe, apparently succumbing to political pressure, delayed in doing so for 22 days.

He further stated that enquiries had revealed that Mr Karpe also hailed from Mr Rane's hometown in Sanquelim and that the police officer's grandfather Mr Subray Karpe was an employee of the Rane household.

Adv Rodrigues stated that he had to conduct the entire investigation by himself and following the failure of the police to prosecute the accused, he had to personally file a criminal complaint against the duo before the Court of the Judicial Magistrate First Class at Panaji.

The Inspector, instead of summoning the accused to the police station, chose to record their statements within the comfort of their residence. Thus, the conduct of the Inspector was ''unbecoming of an officer incharge of a police station and contrary to the Goa government's policy that the police would be sensitive to public complaints'', he averred.

If such conduct by the police continued, we would reach a situation where the 'Aam Aadmi' would have to fend for himself, he said.

He drew the attention of the Chief Secretary and DGP to the fact that the Panaji Bench of the Bombay High Court had severely reprimanded the same police inspector severely for his failure to properly investigate the case relating to the dumping of debris on the Panaji-Ponda highway and directed police authorities to handover the investigation of that case to another officer.

Adv Rodrigues warned that if he did not receive a favorable reply within seven days, he would be constrained to file appropriate legal proceedings, including a civil suit for damages against the impugned police inspector for his failure to perform his statutory duties.

UNI