PANAJI
“I found some discrepancies in the report and it is not fair on my part to disclose them. But I would say that there are contradictions between the inquiry report,
the actual complaint and the statements of the inmates which have been recorded,”
said Parsekar while speaking to The Goan. The chief minister said, “I have already gone through the report submitted by the Inspector General of Prisons. He was also of the opinion that an independent inquiry into the alleged incident should be conducted. I have ordered for a magisterial inquiry under Additional Collector Swapnil Naik, who will be assisted by Tourism Deputy Director Arvind Khutkar. I have asked him to submit the report within 21 days.” Velip had claimed that he was assaulted on March 23 morning while in judicial custody at Sada jail, following which the Chief Minister had asked Inspector General of Prisons Elvis Gomes to conduct an inquiry into the alleged incident and submit a detailed report. The inquiry report was submitted to the Chief Secretary on Monday. “If the alleged incident has happened in the prison, then it is a serious thing. The
truth needs to come out. So we have immediately initiated an independent inquiry as IG
(Prisons) has also suggested conducting of an independent inquiry,” he said. Meanwhile, sources disclosed that a copy of the complaint has yet to reach office of
Inspector General of Prisons. Following reports about this alleged incident, IGP Elvis
Gomes took suo-motu cognizance of the complaint based on media inputs and had initiated the inquiry under Superintendent of Sada jail, the report of which was submitted
to Chief Secretary and Chief Minister on Monday. It was also revealed that there were only three guards on duty on the day Velip was allegedly assaulted whereas the complaint stated that there were at least four perpetrators, who were claimed to be security guards.
In addition to this, Velip is on record that after the assault at around 10 am, he never came out of the cell. But logs at the prison show that he stepped out of the cell at least
seven times after the alleged incident before being released on bail. During this time, he
underwent procedures such as clicking of photos, finger print recording and so on.
Velip, it was added, used the personal phone of one of the guard to place a call to his
lawyer. This raises the question of why a guard would lend his mobile handset to
an inmate after assaulting him so that he can speak with his lawyer. Moreover, the set up of the jail allows inmates of at least five cells a clear view of the spot outside the toilet, where the alleged incident took place according to Velip.
