FAST REWIND: COPS WHO DIED IN MISHAPS
January 2022: Constable Shailesh Gaonkar from Balli-Quepem and attached to Colva police station and IRB constable Vishwas Deykar, both on nakabandi duty on Margao-Colva road were killed by a speeding car driven by one Craig Rodrigues. Police claimed the drunk driver crashed his car on the nakabandi barricades, rammed into the two policemen and hit their two-wheeler before damaging a parked vehicle and the road infrastructure. The government announced an ex gratia of Rs 1 crore and LDC or PSI post to the next of kin of the deceased.
July 2022: Constable Sandeep Naik hit Atal Setu’s divider and landed on the lanes leading to Porvorim and collided with a truck. His car was smashed and the constable was declared brought dead by the GMCH.
September 2021: Head constable Sandesh Balsu Bhagat of Bhagatwada, Canacona, who had met with an accident while returning home from duty, succumbed to his injuries while undergoing treatment at GMCH. At Nagarcem, his motorcycle rammed into stray cattle squatting under the Manohar Parrikar bypass highway bridge and he sustained grievous injuries.
September 2021: Assistant sub-inspector Naresh Narvekar from Paliem, Keri, Pernem died when his car went off the road while he was returning home from work.
March 2020: Police Sub-Inspector Kiran Mamledar attached to Bicholim Police Station died in an accident around 3 am when he was travelling in his car from Durbhat to Bicholim via Sanquelim to attend his duties at Bicholim Police Station.
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CANACONA
A police constable attached to the Anjuna Traffic Cell was killed while four other personnel were seriously injured when a car and a fish container truck collided with each other at Shelli in Loliem-Polem village (Canacona) in the early wee hours of Monday.
While the deceased, Police Constable Rakesh Virnodkar, a resident of Siolim, expired at the Goa Medical College in Bambolim, the others who were grievously hurt were Head Constable Kalidas Shetye (Agarwada-Pernem), Head Constable Krishna Palyekar (Palyem-Pernem), Police Constable Pritesh Mandrekar (Arambol-Pernem) and Home Guard Rajesh Patekar (Mandrem-Pernem).
The incident took place as the five personnel were returning in a car from a pilgrimage of Murdeshwar (Karnataka) and had entered Goa via the Polem border.
At about 2.30 am, their car was involved in a head-on collision with an oncoming fish container truck near the Tanshi junction at Shelli in Loliem-Polem.
The fish Insulator was loaded with fish from Ratnagiri (Maharashtra) and was headed to Kerala.
The impact of the collision was such that the car as well as the driver’s side of the cabin and wheel of the truck sustained extensive damages. The truck driver, however, escaped without any injuries. The cause of the accident is still unclear.
On receiving the news, a Canacona police team led by PI Chandrakant Gawas and PSI Ramchandra Naik rushed to the spot and along with a few locals managed to remove the two police personnel seated at the front in the car.
According to Canacona Police, Kalidas Shetye was driving the car, while the deceased PC Rakesh Virnodkar was seated near the driver.
All five injured personnel were shifted to the Canacona Community Health Centre and were later moved to the District Hospital at Margao. They were then referred to the GMC hospital, where Virnodkar breathed his last.
