PANAJI
Could the transfer of lady Police Inspector Sandhya Gupta be a ploy to quell the controversy surrounding the alleged failure to register an FIR in a rape case?
While no new line duty positions have been established at the police headquarters, the department last Saturday ordered her ‘transfer’ to PHQ for line duty.
The action was taken based on a preliminary inquiry that she delayed registering FIR, against the fact that since the victim was made to return from the women police station, a case was finally booked at Old Goa police station.
Sources said the “transferred” PI completed handing her charge to the PI Mira D’Silva on Tuesday, who replaced her following the controversy. However, with no post created at PHQ, there isn’t any duty in real.
“Usually an officer does not face a transfer on dereliction of duty, and if he/she faces such a situation, the transfer is at the Goa Reserve Battalion and not PHQ where there is no such post. Several such instances in the past saw suspension,” an officer posted at the PHQ said.
While the superiors have refrained from commenting on the issue, the department is also caught in a tight situation over a verbal spat between Deputy Superintendent of Police (Valpoi) Sagar Ekoskar and the now-suspended PI (Valpoi) Prajyot Phadte.
Sources said that officers at the PHQ were indeed aware of the tussle between the two officers. With the matter now in the public domain, the red-faced department is likely to inquire into what transpired the argument and whether abusive words were hurled at each other.
“These officers could face action for disorderliness,” said a senior officer.
The alleged high-handedness during the agitation against the now-scrapped Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) project at Melauli to assaulting a farmer activist; assaulting a panch and even misbehaving with his senior in the past, the DySP carries a series of controversies.
