BY RAJAN NARAYAN

In an action replay of the Alvernaz Alemao case, the CBI is targetting the cops while diluting charges against the Monster Rat.

ON MAY 22, 1992, which happened to be the birthday of Churchill Alemao as well as the wedding day of Kennedy Alemao, a landing of smuggled gold allegedly took place at Fatrade beach virtually in front of the Ramada hotel, which was nearing completion. The Customs Department had received a tip off that a major consignment of smuggled gold would land at Fatrade beach and deputed a young customs officer, Costao Fernandes, to keep watch. At around noon, the landing took place. The gold biscuits, packed in empty car batteries, was loaded on into a Contessa belonging to Churchill Alemao, which was driven by Alvernaz Alemao. The customs officer followed the Contessa carrying the smuggled gold. In an act of great daring and courage, the customs officer jumped from his moving motorbike into the Contessa through an open window. There was a scuffle in the moving car between Alvernaz Alemao and Costao Fernandes. Alvernaz Alemao is reported to have pulled out a knife. Costao, an expert in martial arts, turned the tables on his assailant who was mortally wounded.

CUSTOMS DARING

THE customs officer, who had himself sustained serious injuries, identified himself to the crowd which had gathered and asked them for help. He even opened the boot of the car and took out a gold biscuit from it and showed it to them to prove that the car was being used to transport smuggled gold. He waited for sometime but when a mob, led by the brothers of Alvernaz Alemao, arrived at the spot, Fernandes hurriedly left. So powerful was the hold of the Alemao family in the region that when the customs officer went to the Colva Police station to seek protection, they refused to entertain him. Fearing that the Alemao clan, in connivance with the local police, may kill him, he went underground for two days and eventually gave himself up to the police. While the then collector of customs, Daya Shankar, who himself had been shot at and injured by smugglers in Daman, declared that Costao Fernandes should be considered for a president’s award for his outstanding bravery, the CBI which had taken over the case ironically registered a case of murder and wrongful restraint against Costao Fernandes. The then inspector general of police as well as the chief secretary paid a condolence visit to Churchill Alemao.

COLLUSION

THE Customs authorities charged the CBI with collusion with the Alemao family and accused them of seeking to victimise the brave officer while refusing to follow up on the smuggling complaint lodged by the Customs. But any hopes that the customs authorities had that the CBI would be more objective and less vulnerable to political pressure and carry out an objective investigation into the smuggling case were very quickly belied. Instead of pursuing the charge of smuggling against the Alemao brothers, the CBI incredibly moved the High Court to subject Costao Fernandes to a lie detector test.

The bias of the CBI was indignantly voiced by the counsel for the customs before the Goa Bench of the Bombay High Court. The counsel for the customs, in fact, accused the CBI team of colluding with the Alemao brothers in the case. There was not even a word of protest by the counsel of the CBI against this grave charge. The above mentioned comments are not mine. These charges against the CBI and the collusion of the Goa Police and the CBI with the Alemao brothers was made by Rahul Singh, a senior journalist who was the one time editor of the Indian Express edition in Chandigarh at the height of the Sikh militancy in the state. The charge was made in an article in the Times of India in 1992. (See box)

COSTAO CONVICTED

THE Alemaos hired the influential Ram Jethmalani to represent them. Jethmalani registered a case of murder against Costao Fernandes. Even before the customs lawyer could arrive from Mumbai - in those days there were no morning flights - the case was taken up on a priority basis in the morning session of the Goa Bench of the Bombay High Court and a charge-sheet was admitted against Costao Fernandes for the murder of Alvernaz Alemao. With the police and the CBI colluding with the Alemao family and witnesses unwilling to testify or turning hostile out of fear of retaliation by the Alemao family, Costao Fernandes was, in fact, even convicted by the Sessions Court and the conviction was upheld by the Goa Bench of the Bombay High Court. Senior customs officials, particularly the intrepid Daya Shankar, did not give up and a conviction of Costao Fernandes was challenged in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court not only acquitted Costao Fernandes, but passed severe strictures against the CBI for colluding with the Alemao brothers to bring a false charge of murder against Costao Fernandes.

IRRESPONSIBLE

BECAUSE of the criminal irresponsibility of the police and the CBI, no attempt was made to trace the smuggled gold. Nevertheless, a charge-sheet was filed and the Churchill brothers, including the present PWD Minister Churchill Alemao, his brothers Joaquim Alemao and Cibriao Alemao, were fined lakhs of rupees in lieu of the recovery of the smuggled gold. The case is still pending against the Alemao brothers at the appellate tribunals. So, technically, the charge of smuggling still stands against the Alemao brothers. The reason why we are resurrecting the case is that history has repeated itself and, this time around, the CBI is attempting to if not exonerate at least reduce the seriousness of the charges against Babush Monserrate and his goons in the case filed against them for the attack on the Panaji police station.

In the First Information Report bearing no 57/2008 registered at the Panaji police station on February 19, 2008 police inspector Tushar Lotlikar - narrating the course of events on the attack on the Panaji police station - has stated that the Taleigao MLA Babush Monserrate assembled outside the police station at around 7.30 pm with around 2000 supporters. Lotlikar has put on record that the ire of Babush Monserrate and the goons who accompanied him was directed at the then police inspector of the Panaji police station, Sudesh Naik, whom Monserrate had accused of unjustly arresting Ryan Godinho, a resident of the Taleigao constituency believed to be a close associate of the MLA. Ryan Godinho incidentally was a history teacher with several charges of extortion and attempted murder pending against him. Monserrate’s fury and the provocation for the attack on the Panaji police station, according to the FIR itself, is that the police inspector had allegedly arrested Godinho on false charges at the behest of a rival gang headed by Sheikh Babani, who enjoyed the patronage of his bitter political rival, the former Taleigao MLA, Somnath Zuwarkar.
Lotlikar, in the FIR, has put on record that when Babush Monserrate was leading the mob, which included his wife Jennifer Monserrate and the then mayor of the CCP Tony Dias. Though the SDPO invited Babush for a dialogue to defuse the situation, the Taleigao MLA remained adamant on his demand for immediate suspension of the then Panaji police inspector Sudesh Naik. The spineless Chief Minister promptly agreed to the request. According to the FIR, at 9 pm (following the refusal of the police higher-ups to agree to his demands for the immediate suspension of Sudesh Naik) Babush served an ultimatum to the then SDPO Mohan Naik to suspend the police inspector within the next half an hour or face dire consequences. The FIR further states that Monserrate was seen instigating the mob to attack the police station if the demands were not fulfilled.

INSTIGATION

LOTLIKAR in his report has placed on record that precisely at 9.30 pm, half an hour after the ultimatum was delivered the members of the mob began pelting the police with stones. Sudesh Naik, who was in his office waiting for the situation to calm down as directed by his senior officers, has placed on record that large stones were hurled inside the police station injuring at least 25 police constables, many of whom were women constables. The constables of the Indian Reserve Battalion, who were standing guard outside the police station, were the worst hit in the mob attack. Even while injured police personnel were being taken into the Panaji police station, they were attacked by the mob. All this while neither the then Director General of Police or the Home Minister or the Chief Minister would permit them even to defend themselves against the attack on the police station.

It is on record that the mob led by Babush Monserrate attempted to enter the Panaji police station with the intention to vandalise the city police headquarters. Those defending the police station, including women constables, were brutally assaulted. The police were hopelessly outnumbered as there were only 200 of them as against the mob which comprised of over 2000 people. It was only at 11 pm, two hours after the brutal and blatant attack on the Panaji police station, that the senior police officers finally woke up and issued orders to take appropriate action. It took two hours after the attack on the police station for the Home Minister to give permission to the police to defend themselves and take appropriate action against the Taleigao MLA, who had engaged in an act of insurrection against the State.

Babush Monserrate and his wife Jennifer were arrested on the night of the attack, but were released on bail the very next day despite the fact that the charges were extremely serious and non bailable. The charges included attempt to murder and criminal conspiracy. Presumably under political pressure, more serious charges like waging war against the state were not invoked though the attack on the police station was clearly an act of insurrection and terror against the law and order establishment. A police party also raided the Monserrate mansion in search of those who had launched the brutal attack on the Panaji police station, in the course of which reportedly one of Babush’s sons was beaten up.

INTIMIDATION

WORSE was to follow. On February 22, 2008, three days after the attack and the arrest of Babush Monserrate and his wife, the Taleigao MLA was seen at the police station intimidating the police and demanding to know the names of police officers and constables involved in the raid on Monserrate mansion. Ironically, instead of supporting the police force who had been terrorised by Babush and his goons, senior politicians issued statements demanding action against police officers and constables who were involved in the “brutal attack on the Monserrate mansion”. Under political pressure, Sudesh Naik was suspended — as demanded by Babush Monserrate. It was only after families of police officers and constables who were severely injured in the attack on the Panaji police station held a protested march that the case was eventually transferred to the CBI.

The CBI filed its charge-sheet recently and made public the fact that it had filed the charge-sheet during the latest attempt instigated by Babush Monserrate to topple the Digamber Kamat government. It was only after he became aware that the CBI had filed a charge-sheet that Babush announced the revival of the group of seven to topple the Digmber Kamat government. But from a close reading of the CBI report it is obvious that the charge-sheet is intended to protect Babush and not to penalise him for the act of insurrection and terror against the government. Unlike the original police FIR, which registered cases for attempted murder and criminal conspiracy, the CBI only holds Babush guilty of unlawful assembly and preventing public servants from doing their duty, charges which attract only token punishment, unlike the charges of attempted murder and conspiracy which attract severe punishment. If any proof is needed that the CBI is colluding with Babush, just as it colluded with the Alemao brothers in 1992, this is made obvious in the fact that the CBI insists that it does not have any evidence to prosecute Babush and company on the charges of murder and criminal conspiracy.

Never mind that the police had confiscated a motorcycle and three other four wheelers which were involved in the attack. Never mind that police officials identified 26 others involved in the attack on the police station. Indeed, instead of following up the case seriously, neither the CBI nor the police, under pressure from politicians, made serious attempts to protect the evidence. Even two weeks after the incident no attempt was made to arrest the owners of the vehicles in which big stones were stored.

NOT INTERROGATED

NEITHER the Monserrates nor the former mayor of the CCP, Tony Fernandes, and Corporation of the City of Panaji councillors Uday Madkaikar and Naguesh Karishetty were interrogated by the police. Instead, besides the transfer of the police inspector, several police men who were allegedly involved in the raid of the Monserrate mansion were transferred. The unkindest cut of all is that the CBI apparently is demanding action by the police against the police officers and officials who raided the Monserrate mansion to arrest those who stoned the police station and has, in fact, filed charge-sheets against two police constables.

If Maoists or Naxals had attacked the Panaji police station, as they have done in the case of several police stations in the country, they would not only have been booked for attempted murder and criminal conspiracy, but the Anti Terrorism Act would have been invoked and they would have been taken into custody. If Naxals had attacked a police station, the Grey Hounds and other specialised anti- naxal squads would have been directed to not just arrest them, but shoot them. Indeed, there have been many cases where the special forces created to deal with Naxals have launched attacks on innocent tribals on the charge of extending protection and patronage to Naxals.

In case of communal, riots irrespective of whether the police have any evidence or not, Muslims have been picked up in large numbers and subjected to the third degree. In Gujarat, it has been widely accepted that the government has been guilty of genocide of a minority community and the CBI itself has filed several charge-sheets against them. But in an equal number of cases in which there has been political pressure, the CBI has acted even more irresponsibly than the local police. The CBI charge-sheet against Babush Monserrate is yet another such case where the objective seems to be to get Babush and his goons off the hook rather than ensure that they are punished for an act of insurrection against the government. All the evidence has probably been destroyed to guarantee an acquittal.

Unfortunately, the ground reality is that not only the police force but even the CBI has become totally politicised and criminalised and corrupt. The bitter ground reality is that criminals turned politicians are the ones who call the shots. The bitter ground reality is that criminals, with the use of money power and muscle power, are in the process of taking over the legislative bodies like Parliament and the legislative assemblies. So much so, the law breakers are now the law makers. The law breakers now, as home ministers, preside over and control the law makers and the law enforcers such as the police and the CBI and possibly even the newly formed National Intelligence Agency.

Shibu Soren, who had been convicted of murder and whose appeal is pending in the Supreme Court, is now the chief minister and the home minister of Jharkhand. Madhu Koda, the principle accused in the multi billion foreign exchange scam, was the former chief minister of Jharkhand, has succeeded in getting his wife re-elected to the Jharkhand assembly. The moral of the story is that if we continue to elect criminals to the Legislative Assembly and Parliament, we will have no right to complain against the subversion of the law and order system and even the judicial system by criminals-turned-politicians. The Babush case, going by the CBI charge-sheet, is a warning or a wake up call of the changing times when cops will be in the dock and criminals will be calling the tunes.