The protesters at the site of track laying work. Captured by : Santosh Mirajkar
MARGAO
Deputy Superintendent of Police, Kiran Podwal came under fire from activists as well as on the social media after he was captured on camera threatening the activists who had come to demand answers to their queries at the Davorlim track laying work.
That the Police officer reportedly used language such as “bloody fool” and “get out” when the people were demanding to know whether the ongoing work had a work order did not go down well with the activists.
When a local villager sought to know whether the railways had the work order, the DySP yelled at him, saying “who are you to ask for a work order. What work are you doing here, Bloody fool. You cannot stop the government work. You have any problems, go to the officials and get them resolved”.
He then warned the people that they will not be able to go abroad if any offense is registered against him and further threatened them to invoke Section 353 of the IPC.
Activist Sandra Rodrigues, who was there on the ground at Davorlimn, claimed that the police officer was rude with the people, threatened to confiscate their cell phones and put them behind bars.
“This police officer told the people that they are not supposed to trespass intro the railway property. We replied back saying we have every right to enter as their demand to produce the property document were not met by the police and railway officials”, she said.
Sandra wondered how can a senior police officer threaten the people by saying they will not be able to go abroad to earn their livelihood. “This is a strange thing happening in Goa. How can the police threaten the people by saying that they will get police force from Bihar to teach the people a lesson and complete the project’, she demanded to know.
Saying that the people of Goa will not be cowed down by the police threats, Sandra said “we are Goans and the land belongs to us. Why we should get scared of such threats. This land belongs to us and have full right to stand here and protect our motherland”, she asserted.
