Head Constable Waman Naik is an accused at large. More thana week after rock solid testimony has nailed his role in sexual misconduct involvingpimps and prostitutes besides being a financial beneficiary of the sexual trade,the police has been maintaining a stoic silence.
Surprisingly, Waman Naik was suspended only on Wednesday,December 6, the fact that his suspension took such a long time despite an FIRbeing lodged in crime branch a week before is a testimony to how the copsshield their own kind. Sources in the police department had informed that Wamanhas applied for sick leave and gone missing. Crime Branch officials did not findWaman at his residence in Pernem.
That his disappearance has been enabled by friendlycolleagues at the workplace is suspect. The already tainted Calangute police havebeen further shamed by the latest statements of prostitutes.
Sources in the police have informed that Waman Naik wasexploiting these prostitutes for a decade and he managed to stay in Calangutewith the patronage of superiors. He was transferred last year to the Mapusa CID.The call of Calangute brought him back in three months during which he facedmore allegations of misconduct. The saga of he being shunted out and thenbrought back into mainstream policing continued.
He was banished to GRP Altinho and not surprisingly wasabout to be transferred back to the PCR police patrol team attached toCalangute (Calangute Robot 14) was almost done, when the FIR was fi led againsthim, on the basis of statements made by sex workers. Naik obviously isn’talone. Michael Lobo, Calangute MLA, who insists that a righteous offi cer willbe able to expose the kingpin of the trade points out to the fact that thepolice personnel especially PSI, HC and constables who had been transferred outbefore Assembly elections were back in Calangute.
While Goa Police’s crime branch is acting on a complaintagainst head constable Waman Naik and others from Mapusa and Bicholim police stationof exploiting sex workers and demanding protection money from them, will thepolice nab them at all?
The Calangute police has of late gone on a overdrive withmore than two dozen prostitution cases booke and nearly 45 victim girls rescued since police inspector Nolasco Raposohas taken charge. But shockingly, Raposo told The Goan that he was unawareabout the unholy nexus between Waman and prostitutes. How much do the policekeep tabs on its own? And does it really want to?
