'Police fix youth in false case'

Speaking to media persons on behalf of the victim, Pavur Gram Panchayat member Valerian D’Souza said, the police have filed FIR against Braggs on the charges of him supplying illicit liquor. Narrating the incident, he said Gerald Braggs, who is a jeep driver in Pavur was driving his jeep on February 23 morning in the service of his renter. When he reached the main road, two men (supposedly police in civil dress) stopped his jeep, attacked him and accused him of supplying the illicit liquor. When Gerald refused the allegations made against him, the men placed two liquor cans inside his jeep and informed that he will be arrested by the police within some time. Meanwhile, the police team led by Sub Inspector Narayan Baindoor who came in a Bolero jeep arrested him and took him to Excise Enforcement and Lottery Prohibition Wing Police Station in Bunder, informed Valerian D’Souza.

After being taken to the police station, Gerald was harassed by the police who forcibly asked him to sign on the blank papers, following which they filed FIR against him. Later, it was learnt from the eyewitness that two men in civil dress who placed the liquor tins in Gerald’s jeep had come to Pavur in the same Bolero jeep in which the SI had come.    

Informing about the chain of events, victim Gerald Braggs said, the police have filed the case with wrong intention. I have lived my life with dignity and was never involved in any illegal activities. “With the police making me a defaulter, I am not being able to lead my life like earlier. They have confiscated the jeep and I have nothing to do for livelihood,” he said.

Defending Braggs, Pavur GP member Abdul Khader said, Braggs is an honest man and the entire village knows it. The event was pre-planned and the police just needed a scapegoat. The police have gone down to such an extent that they had forced a villager Benna to agree that Braggs had taken liquor from his house. “We have submitted complaint to the Lokayukta and the Human Rights Commission seeking help. We want an enquiry to be done on this issue and the guilty must be punished. The police should stop playing with the life of the innocent public,” he said.