By IANS,
Panaji : In a shocking incident, a handicapped beggar has alleged that a Goa Police patrol car had dumped him on a garbage heap, leaving him to die.
Between gasps of pain, the beggar, who identified himself as Shelton, a 47-year-old resident of Tamil Nadu’s Tuticorin district, said police had picked him up from the pavement in front of a hotel late Tuesday night and had told him that he was being taken to Mother Theresa’s hospital.
“All I can remember was that the police threw me in the garbage dump at night. I lay there till noon today. I could not move at all,” Shelton told IANS here Wednesday.
The police control room (PCR) jeep drove to a garbage dump opposite the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) complex in the city and dumped the beggar on the garbage heap before taking off, YMCA local chapter president Joseph Vaz said.
“It was a police jeep with its beacon lights and there were three to four men inside. We found the jeep’s movement suspicious, but did not know at the time that the cops were dumping a human being in the dump,” Vaz, also an advocate practicing in the high court, told IANS.
He added that since it was dark, it was difficult to note down the registration number of the vehicle.
“The beggar crawled all the way from the garbage dump to our YMCA complex compound today afternoon because he could not walk. That was when he noticed him. He was barely alive when we found him,” Vaz said.
He said the beggar had identified himself as Shelton and said he had worked on board a trawler for nearly 30 years before he met with an accident and damaged his limbs waist down eight months ago. He had resorted to begging since, Vaz said.
When contacted, Superintendent of Police (North district) Tony Fernandes said he was not aware of the incident but assured that he would look into the matter.