-- Samir Umarye TEAM HERALD
Cipriano died, she survived. The Bicholim police, led by the same officer conducting an inquiry into the Cipriano case dragged and beat a woman unconscious in a minor property trespass case. A month and a half later, every policeman roams free and without charges. TEAM HERALD pulls this case out of oblivion and places it before you The tragedy is in the irony. As policemen held prima facie guilty of brutally torturing Cipriano Fernandes, which led to his death, face arrest and punishment, a woman in Bicholim, gets far less attention because she has lived to tell her tale. Her torture story is actually a week older than Cipriano’s. First, see what happened to her. This is her story, obviously denied by the Bicholim police. Why this happened to her is actually irrelevant and even absurd and will be dealt with later. Geeta Pednekar, 29 of Bicholim was dragged across broken iron plates by Sub-Inspector Valke, flung into a police jeep, kicked in the abdomen till she lost consciousness only to regain it briefly at a primary health centre. She fainted yet again only to find her-self at the Goa Medical College. “Three lady constables and police Sub-Inspector Valke came to my house, dragged me and dumped me in the police jeep. I was dragged through broken iron plates near my house gutter…”. “I was forcibly removed from my house and on my way to the Bicholim police station, I was beaten up by constables including the male ones. A woman constable Mamta kicked me on my abdomen several times”. Clearly there are no gender restrictions in khaki brutality. Geeta was picked up by the Bicholim police on January 1 evening after a complaint by her paternal aunt’s daughter Suman Shirodkar alias Anjali Agarwadekar and her husband Arvind Agarwadekar that Geeta had beaten Suman. The couple complained against me that I entered their house and beat Suman but the fact is contrary. Infact they came to my mother’s house when it was locked and when I reached there, they thrashed me”, she alleges. Geeta’s maternal home is a disputed property and the matter is pending in Court as Geeta’s father, claiming to be a bachelor, had sold the house to Suman Shirodkar and her husband. Geeta, however, claims that she had not trespassed into another’s property but was at her house when the incident happened. She claims that her property has been illegally occupied. Geeta continues her tale of torture. “I fell unconscious and don’t know what happened. I regained consciousness only at local health centre and complained to the doctor of abdomen pain. I fell unconscious again and later found myself at Goa Medical College and Hospital”, recalls the lady, who still quivers after the terrifying incident. Geeta claims that her relative saw the policemen beating her when she was unconscious even at the police station. She says that they were threatened by the police against divulging anything. “During her treatment at GMC, Geeta said that police forced her to sign on a paper which she refused. She informed the Goa State Commission for Women (GSCW) that the police were threatening her to sign on the paper or face jail in Aguada Central Jail. She was discharged on January 5 but the police torture did not halt. She was actually denied entry to her own house till the States Women’s Commission intervened. And about twenty days later, police guards stationed for her protection (sic) were withdrawn by the order of the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM). A day before the police guards were withdrawn in an order by the SDM, Bicholim police had locked her inside her mother’s house on January 26. “Since no policemen were there, I entered the house but on their return they latched the main door from outside. However, they opened it later”, she added. GSCW Chairperson Ezilda Sapeco, who had several personal trips to Bicholim has initiated inquiry into the ‘police atrocities’. In her inquiry, she had also asked the Bicholim police extracts of station diary pertaining to the case, SDM’s report and other related details. Unlike in the Cipriano case, when the police gave various reasons for his death starting from fits, to convulsions to epilepsy and his alcoholism, in Geeta’s case there is no excuse. The State’s Women’s Commission has found clear prima facie evidence of brutal torture inflicted upon Geeta. DySP Bicholim, Bossuette D’Silva who is incidentally inquiring into procedural lapses in the Cipriano case has meanwhile denied charges of police assault on the woman. He said that the Bicholim police have registered a case filed by both – Suman and Geeta against each other. However, Geeta is not co-operating with the case probe. http://oheraldo.in/news/Main%20Page%20News/Nothing-changes-Just-the-faces-of-torture/45426.html