Nothing in Goa or any other corrupt administration is simple. But if one has to reduce a complex situation to its bare bones in order to understand it, here is how the pieces fall into place, something you will not see in the media.
The Facts: A Vasco based North Indian businessman has been cheated for a very large amount of money. He tries to file an FIR (first information report) in the Ponda police station, the jurisdiction of the crime, but is met with evasion for several months. He then goes straight to the IGP (the number 2 man in the Goa State Police Hierarchy). He is asked for a bribe of 10% of the amount in question which comes to about 10 lakhs. Behind the Scenes: At the Ponda Police Station level, the station inspector and his cohorts have been bribed by the perp (perpetrator) not to write an FIR. The perp will be playing fast and loose with the money he has cheated while the victim does not have a money advantage. The Ponda police know that the victim is an educated businessman and will be escalating the problem to the higher authority in Panjim and they have prepared some false story justifying their non-registration of the FIR. The businessman has contacted a "friend" to navigate the system. The friend identifies the IGP as the man to approach and they go to meet him. The IGP is known to be on the take and they are hoping that with a small gratification and with the hope that he may have a sense of justice, they may finally be on the road to recovery. The IGP is a greedy man but according to his lights, ten percent of a cheated amount would be fair for the victim to pay. He may even have to share that with his boss the DGP depending on how the latter operates. The plan is really simple. Once he gets the bribe, he brings in the perp, gets him beaten up and recovers the money. During this process he may either: get the entire amount and pass off only a part of it to the victim or arrive at an arrangement with the perp to keep some of it, give some to him and the leftover handed to the victim. It's easy to do. Violence and intimidation on the perp who knows he has done wrong, and persuasion of the victim by telling him that getting some (or most) of the amount is better than none at all. In this case, a spanner was thrown in the works. The victim was incensed that a man of the law instead of protecting him was looting him. He decides to throw all caution to the winds. Perhaps he suspected that after giving the bribe, the IGP will do nothing and he would thus be further victimized. He goes prepared during his visit to hand over money to the IGP. He records the visit and decides to expose him. That is what happens. The IGP contacts his political sponsors. There is always a nexus between police and politicians. One has dirt on the other, so no betrayal is likely to occur. The politicians in power will wait for the din to die and and eventually kill the case against the IGP. They have enough practise of this with fellow politicians. But our man knows how to work the system too. He knows his money is gone forever so all he wants now is justice. He wants the IGP down. He knows he is in a vulnerable situation. The IGP can arrange to have him bumped off, body found in a remote forest. The police ostensibly will have nothing to do with this. It will have been arranged through a criminal gang for a quid pro quo. I said a police-politician nexus. Well, there is an equally strong police-criminal nexus. So here's how our victim defends himself to the best of his ability. He goes to the opposition party and tells them about it, enlisting their support. He goes to an upright Superintendent of Police who hates the guts of a dishonest IGP and advises him of what to do in the police system and he hires the services of a good lawyer who if nothing seems to happen with the police system, will take the matter through the courts and eventually perhaps (emphasis on perhaps) get justice. All this is contingent on his being alive. The victim is a man of guts and I admire him. It takes extraordinary courage to fight a corrupt IPS police officer and one who has political connections like this one surely does. But to any Goan from the diaspora I have this piece of simple honest advice. Don't get into any situation in India where you need to obtain police help. Your life will be turned upside down. Roland Francis Toronto.
