'Politicking' of a different kind!

There is so much interference with the police force in Goa by politicians that it no longer looks like a police force! Goa police can now be called a security agency appointed by MLAs and ministers. They serve their (political) masters and report to them. They take direct orders from politicians and their confidential assessment is also done by MLAs and politicians they owe allegiance to.This may be happening in many other Indian states as well, but the magnitude and depth of its happening in Goa is to be seen to be believed.
Disgusted with the way things have been going on, director general of police, Goa, issued a diktat to senior officials of the Goa police a few days ago directing police personnel to report to him before going to meet any politician, be it an MLA, a minister or even the chief minister. He did not stop at that. The DGP has told his men in uniform to report back on the interactions they have with the politicians.
The DGP perhaps has had no clue what his policemen are doing while on duty. Goa police has come in for severe criticism for mishandling of cases and now the people seem to have lost confidence in the police force's ability to do justice to them. The DGP was not even consulted in transfers of SPs last week, so much so that he had to write to the chief secretary a couple of days ago asking the government to reconsider the transfers since he was not consulted on the postings. The DGP also instructed the SPs not to take up their new postings until he returned from a trip on July 30.
Consider this: Several officers of the sensitive crime branch have been holding on to their posts in the branch for over three years and one officer has been there for over seven years. Crime branch has been dealing with several high profile cases including the police-drug mafia nexus case (which has recently been handed over to CBI following public outcry), the Cipriano lock-up death investigations, Balli violence, Mickky Pacheco case in which he has been charged with abetting the suicide of Nadia Torrado and Jitendra Deshprabhu's illegal mining case, among others.
As per the Prakash Singh judgment in the Supreme Court, no officer should serve a field posting for more than three years, which should be the maximum. Immediately after such a posting, the officer should be sent to a non-field posting. This has not happened, and several officers have been holding on to their field-posting assignments. An obvious inference is that these officers are close to politicians and wield considerable clout with the political class.
Even the DGP of the state is helpless in ensuring an appropriate investigation into sensitive cases. There have been instances to make such an argument, because in many cases, the politicians know the exact case details even before the DGP or other high-ranking officers of the police force in Goa.
In one instance, disgusted with political interference, a leading lawyer in the know of things said the police inspector too was helpless. No sooner than a criminal was brought to him, he started getting calls. He picked the call to realize that a very senior politician was calling him and trying to tell him to let the criminal go. The police officer immediately cut the call to make it look like the call got cut by itself and put the phone off the hook. He then gave the criminal a thorough bashing and cross-examined him.
Within half-an-hour, a man representing the politician was at the door of the police station asking for the police inspector. When the officer got wind of it, he immediately went back to the phone, and put the receiver back on the hook. When the politician's Man Friday told him that his 'master' was trying to get in touch with him 'urgently', the officer called up the powerful politician.
For the next five minutes, he got orders from the politician over the phone on how to handle the case and to let the criminal off. Though by that time, the policeman had given the criminal a wild trashing. He of course politely apologized to the politician saying he did not know that the criminal was his man and promised him that he would do as told.
After a few minutes, the 'helpless' policeman promptly released the criminal. Neither the top brass of the police force, nor the DGP ever got to know of the case. And this happens regularly in Goa. Most cases are settled by politicians directly with the police inspector and other policemen down the line. Even a constable is so powerful that they take orders from their political masters before doing anything in a case.
Many cases are registered daily by policemen because a politician wants the case registered. And cases die a natural death after the politician extracts his pound of flesh. Such is the interference in the day-to-day policing in Goa. God help natural justice.