Call for murder bid charge intensifies against Margao PSI

Margao: A day after the police booked suspended police sub-inspector Nilesh Shirwaikar for allegedly assaulting a man in police custody, social activists on Thursday gathered outside the South Goa police headquarters in Margao, demanding that he be charged with attempt to murder.

Social activist Pratima Coutinho, along with other activists, demanded that charges of attempt to murder be registered against Shirwaikar and other police personnel involved in the assault on Edberg Pereira, 37, a resident of Navelim. The activists, however, were denied entry as the main entrance to the police headquarters was kept closed.

In protest, they staged a sit-in near the entrance of the headquarters and raised slogans against the police action.

The protesters said that common people in Goa were not safe as a “reign of hooliganism” prevails in the state, and demanded the resignation of chief minister Pramod Sawant. They demanded a thorough investigation into the assault on Pereira and that all those involved in the incident be arrested.

Coutinho also demanded that CCTV footage of the assault incident at the Margao police station be made available to them.

Margao police inspector Suraj Samant later called the protesters inside his office and lent them a hearing.