How the Goa Police is being Weaponised Against Legitimate Dissenters

The recent case against singer and activist Apoorva Mudgal and the earlier cases against student protestors in Goa, after incitement by right-wing BJP supporters, raise questions over police investigations, says Avertino Miranda*.

Musician and activist Apoorva Mudgal has been hounded for allegedly raising a slogan “Hinduwad Murdabad”, a charge she has categorically denied. But why are the police in BJP-ruled Goa allowing complaints by right wing vigilantes against activists holding protests against a range of issues?

On October 26, 2026, Mudgal, was interrogated for over two hours by officers in Panjim police station. She categorically denied the charges. The slogans were allegedly raised in a protest held on October 4, following the protests demanding the resignation of the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

Mudgal was charged by the Panjim police for hurting religious sentiments under the BNS Act, including under Section 191, 299, 189 (2), 190 and was later slapped with a fresh charge of illegal assembly under Section 190 of BNS Act.

Initial reports had said the police were filing the case because of “Hindutva Murdabad” slogans. 

Since then, BJP activists have been demanding action against her. Last week, she was summoned twice to the Panjim police station, but police officials themselves failed to turn up. As it is, Mudgal had faced complaints from a group calling themselves ‘Citizens of Mapusa’, for a speech she had given in July this year.

Mudgal’s case is only the latest in the crackdown on dissenting voices, aided by local BJP supporters and compliant police. In July, local BJP supporters filed complaints against students for holding placards supporting jailed student leader Umar Khalid.

Since July, when massive Jantar Mantar protests in Delhi resonated in Goa in the form of large rallies of solidarity, local BJP supporters began trolling activists at the forefront of the movement. At least four youth and students were detained and arrested on fabricated charges in a clear attempt to intimidate them.

Rattled by the manner in which students and youth are gathering in large numbers to protest calls over the resignation of the Union Education Minister and now, the CEC, the BJP government and their right wing affiliates are trying their best to disturb and divert the main issues raised by the protestors.

Activists in Goa say the cases are an attempt to intimidate them with false charges as the BJP government seeks to deflect from the main issue of the people’s demand for the resignation of the Chief Election Commissioner. The activists have been highlighting the issue of ‘Vote Chori’, voter name deletions under SIR and have raised the demand to scrap EVMs and reintroduce ballot paper.

Crackdown in July and false charges against protestors

In July, this writer was present when students and youth gathered last month to celebrate their victory over the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan at Azad Maidan in Panjim, Goa. Then, a small group of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) members in a premeditated plan in connivance with the local police, tried to disturb the gathering.

A group of BJYM supporters, along with the police, questioned a protestor, Danish Mohammed, for displaying a placard which said “Free Umar Khalid and free Sharjeel” the students activists who have been jailed without any trial for over six years now. The police demanded that Danish show his identity and remove his face mask. When asked under what law this was being demanded, the police refused to answer, forcibly lifted him and temporarily detained him. Lawyers found out later that he was detained under Section 170 of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita as a preventive detention measure.

Screenshot of FB post by a BJP supporter

Meanwhile, the victory celebration turned into a protest to demand his release at the Panjim police headquarters. The BJYM, including its president and vice president, who are practicing lawyers in Goa, repeatedly tried to disrupt the protest and raised slogans against the protestors calling them anti-nationals and supporters of “terrorists.”

Strangely, the BJYM activists couldn’t digest the slogans Bharat Mata ki Jai and Vande Mataram raised by a protestor and law student, Sudeep Dalvi They physically assaulted him and pushed him on to the ground. While the police did intervene and save Sudeep from further assault, they ended up charging him with outraging the modesty of the BJYM lady who assaulted him!

Both Sudeep and Danish were released late past midnight after almost five hours of detention. Sudeep later filed a counter complaint against both the BJYM functionaries stating:

“Suddenly two people, a lady and a man, namely Kareena Shirodkar, ward councillor, CCP, Panjim, and Nishikar Raut Dessai, Vice President, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha , Panjim, arrived at the scene and started throwing tantrums, creating nuisance at the spot. Both of them got into a verbal altercation with me and upon being verbally countered, ran towards me with a clear intent of criminal assault.

The lady approached me violently and pushed my body with her hands with such a force that I fell down on the footpath right adjacent to the main gate. Fortunately, the policemen on duty there held me, and physically escorted me away from the scene. Had I not been escorted from the place, there was a probability of great magnitude of me suffering immense physical violence, which could have led to me suffering grave injuries, to the extent even resulting in loss of my life or limbs.”

Later, the Goa Police arrested Sudeep under section 79, 74 of the BNS Act 2023 upon receiving the complaint of the 25-year-old Kareena Shirodkar, on the grounds that on July 25, 2026, Sudeep insulted the modesty of the complainant by using an abusive word in the presence of the public gathered at the spot, and when the complainant went to confront the accused, the accused person further touched the chest of the complainant there by outraging her modesty.

Apoorva Mudgal (centre) with her lawyers Adv Raju Polekar (R) and Adv Caroline Collasso (L) soon after interrogation at the Panjim police station

Another motivated complaint against Mudgal

At around the same time, Apoorva Mudgal was called for questioning following her address of a public meeting in Mapusa describing her account of police brutality against protesting students at Jantar Mantar and a subsequent complaint filed against her by a group called ‘Citizens of Mapusa’.

Police made her answer a pointed questionnaire consisting of 240 questions. Apoorva filed her written non-consent to the monitoring of her personal social media accounts and questioned the police’s failure to comply with India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act.

Interestingly to-date, the Goa police on some pretext or the other has failed to file an FIR against the BJYM duo for assaulting Sudeep, nor has the statement of the key witness, including this writer been recorded.

As in the earlier case, the Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant made statements calling the protestors anti-national and even in the present case, he has gone on record to say that outsiders were disturbing peace in Goa and causing communal disharmony. He said an enquiry would be held in the matter.

But the manner in which police are being used by local BJP supporters to file these false cases is very disturbing. Why is there no action against complaints filed by protestors against these vigilantes? Is it too much to expect the police to uphold basic principles of justice in a democracy?

*Avertino Miranda is a journalist and environmental activist based in Panjim, Goa.