PANAJI
The Bombay High Court at Goa has dismissed with costs the petition filed by former Anjuna Police Inspector Vishwesh Karpe who had challenged an order of the Goa Human Rights Commission (GHRC) that had ordered the state to pay Rs 5,000 compensation to one Cirilo D’Souza of Anjuna, who was allegedly slapped by Karpe, as the then Police Inspector, when he went to the Anjuna Police Station to complain about loud music being played from Hilltop party venue back in 2013.
In dismissing the case filed by the then Police Inspector, who is now a Deputy Superintendent of Police, the High Court imposed costs of Rs 10,000 upon the petitioner besides also directing that the order of the Human Rights Commission be given effect within one month.
D’Souza, who was a resident of Anjuna, recounted that he had telephonically called the Anjuna Police Station on January 1, 2013, at around 11.30 am to make a complaint about the loud amplified music being played at a Bar called “HillTop”, which was located next to St Michael's Convent School.
The duty officer, Krishna Shetye informed him that the said establishment had valid permission to play amplified music and requested the petitioner to come to the Police Station to verify the same. D’Souza claims that when he went to the station, he met the then Police Inspector Karpe and explained to him that the sound level of the music was at the level of 100 decibels which is much above the 55 decibels level permissible under law, and requested him to check the same.
In turn, however, according to the complaint, the Police Inspector told him that it was none of his business and started abusing and manhandling him by slapping him on his face 7-8 times and punching him on his stomach.
He was then kept in the police lockup of the Anjuna Police Station for about half an hour to one hour.
D’Souza said that the Anjuna Police refused to register his FIR both of the noise pollution as well as the assault complaint against the PI, which prompted him to report the matter in a detailed report to the Superintendent of Police and the SHO at Mapusa.
Since no action was taken on his complaint, D’Souza then filed a more detailed complaint on January 8, 2013, addressed to the Superintendent of Police of North Goa, the Chief Minister, the Chief Secretary and the GHRC seeking action for the assault and for illegally detaining the complainant.
The Commission, on considering the evidence produced by the parties during the course of the inquiry and statements of the witnesses, arrived at a finding that the petitioner indulged in gross abuse of power by having assaulted D’Souza and also by illegally detaining him at the Police Station.
Accordingly, the Commission, after concluding that the Secretary of the Home Department has taken a casual approach towards this grave act, has directed the State, through the Chief Secretary to pay an amount of Rs 5,000 as compensation to the complainant and further held that it would be open to the Goa government to recover this amount from the petitioner.
"The Tribunal whilst arriving at these factual findings can by no means be considered unreasonable or not based upon the evidence before it. In fact, we find it difficult to convince ourselves, based upon the entirety of evidence on record, to take any other view than the one taken by the Commission in its report. We are, therefore, of the opinion, that the findings of fact arrived at by the Commission are neither perverse nor unreasonable and are based purely on the evidence before it. We see no reason to interfere with these findings," the High Court said.
"It appears from the inaction demonstrated by the Government of Goa in the present case, that it has not even bothered to order an independent investigation into the complaint which is of serious nature, thereby lending its support to police officers who indulge in Human Rights atrocities, and becoming an accessory to the act of denial of a citizen's Human Rights and his fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India," the High Court also said.
