Comlaints against police personnel rose by 60% in 2025

Panaji: Complaints against police personnel before the State Police Complaint Authority (SPCA) rose by 60% in 2025, with the authority receiving 115 complaints during the course of that year. In the last three years, 256 complaints were filed against police personnel of various ranks, and 134 were pending before the SPCA.

The authority received 71 complaints in 2023 and 70 in 2024, before the number increased to 115 in 2025.

Chief minister Pramod Sawant said the authority was not functional from April 13, 2018, to June 20, 2021, due to the non-appointment of a chairperson and members. “A total of 84 cases were pending. Since the reconstitution of the SPCA on June 21, 2021, all cases have been disposed of, and only nine are pending,” Sawant said.

Most complaints pertained to police refusing to register FIRs. Some other complaints referred to personnel assaulting complainants when an FIR was asked to be registered. In one such case, a complainant stated he was harassed by the police while registering an FIR. There were also complaints of abuse of power and arrest without valid reasons.

In 2014, state govt issued a memorandum restricting the body from taking suo motu cognisance of misconduct by police personnel. The move drew criticism from activists and the public, as the number of cases filed has increased over the past five years. The SPCA recommended disciplinary proceedings against police officers and directed some to perform social service, requiring them to educate members of 10 village panchayats about the SPCA's functioning and procedures.

Sawant said disposal of cases before the authority depended on external factors such as the presence of complainants and respondents, submission of evidence etc., due to which certain cases remained pending or took longer to be disposed of. SPCA prioritised cases pending for a longer period while trying to maintain a balance of hearing new complaints.

“Apart from that, the authority has implemented the Court Management System, as developed by Goa Electronics Ltd, for quasi-judicial authorities. However, such authorities are deemed to be courts for specific purposes, and their proceedings are constituted to be judicial proceedings. Therefore, state govt has a limited role in the functioning of the authority and that is restricted to administrative and financial matters,” Sawant said.

Referring to whether any timeline was fixed for early disposal of pending complaints, Sawant said the SPCA conducted judicial proceedings like those of a court and that disposal of cases depended on various external factors, which is why no timeline was fixed for disposal of pending complaints.