PANAJI
A citizen seeking passport verification allegedly faced a demand for Rs 2,000 from a police personnel at the Panaji Special Branch (SB) after informing the police that he would not be available at his permanent residential address during the verification process.
The latest allegation has once again brought the department handling passport clearances under a cloud, barely weeks after two personnel faced a similar bribery charge.
The allegation surfaced through a social media post by one Varsha Naik, who tagged Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and Goa police, questioning the practice of demanding money from citizens for routine police verification.
Her post on October 26 mentioned that the citizen had visited the Panaji police station to inform the police that he would be temporarily unavailable at the address mentioned in his passport application, although it was his permanent residence. A police personnel allegedly assured him that the clearance would not pose a problem, provided he paid Rs 2,000.
“During (the) passport police inquiry, one of the citizen(s) went to (the) Panjim (Panaji) police station to inform the police that he won’t be available at the address mentioned in the passport, although it is his permanent residence. On that, the police said that no issue, he will give the clearance provided if he pays 2000 rs. So (the) public r (are) panicked n (and) force(d) to pay the bribe... can this be stopped,” she posted on X handle.
Clarifying the location of the alleged incident in a subsequent reply, Naik said it had taken place at the Panaji SB dealing with passport verification.
The post drew a response from the police, with Naik subsequently acknowledging that she had received a phone call from the department regarding the complaint.
Sources told The Goan that an inquiry has been initiated into the allegation. The SDPO sought details of the incident from the Police Inspector concerned, including the circumstances surrounding the complaint and the action proposed in the matter.
The latest complaint comes against the backdrop of a similar allegation in September, when a head constable and a police constable attached to the very same SB allegedly demanded Rs 10,000 in connection with passport verification. An inquiry was also called for at the time.
However, the outcome of that inquiry and whether any departmental action followed remain unclear.
