Goa Police dismisses constable for links with ‘chain snatcher’

Panaji, Aug 25 : Goa Police has dismissed services of constable Vikas Kaushik, against whom Goa AAP MLA Venzy Viegas had sought action alleging he extorted businessmen and helped ‘chain snatcher’ to commit crimes for his share.

Viegas had raised the issue in the monsoon assembly session and subsequently the policeman was suspended.

The order of dismissal said that considering the links and the contact that Kaushik has, it is not practical to hold an inquiry as the witnesses would be hard to come by due to fear.

"The misconduct is gross, extremely serious and grave in nature and the penalty of dismissal is fully deserved in the case," it said.

Earlier, the Bicholim Police had arrested accused Faizan Sayyed in connection with a chain-snatching case.During the custodial interrogation of the accused Sayyed, it came to light that one of the police personnel Vikas Kaushik was in constant touch with him.

Sayyed further revealed that Kaushik used to call him through a social media account which he had created on one of the stolen mobile phones with a stolen SIM card being used by him.

Sayyed claimed that Kaushik had called him from an unknown number instructing him to commit theft only in North Goa district and had directed Sayyed not to disclose anything about the stolen property to police during the investigation.

"The said policeman tutored accused Faizan Sayyed to delete all chat history and call history from his mobile phone from time to time to escape from police, if caught (as he will take due care for his release)," the order said.

sbk/dan