Probe links of Goa home minister’s son to drug trade: BJP

PANAJI - The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Goa Wednesday demanded the resignation of state home minister Ravi Naik and a criminal probe against him and his son Roy after an Israeli newspaper linked the latter to the powerful drugs mafia here.

The party also sought a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the police-politician-drug mafia nexus which was unearthed by a Swedish model some months back.

Former state BJP president Rajendra Arlekar told reporters that it was increasingly clear that the Goa Police were sabotaging the entire investigation into the drug nexus case and the needle of suspicion invariably pointed to the home minister and his son time and again.

“A home minister and his son being linked to the drug mafia is a very, very grave charge. Naik has to resign to allow for an impartial probe. If he does not resign, the chief minister (Digambar Kamat) should sack him from the cabinet to facilitate a fair probe,” Arlekar said.

He added that the home minister was pressurising the police to ensure that the drug mafia nexus probe hit a dead end.

The BJP also distributed scanned photocopies of the May 24 edition of Maariv, a leading Israeli tabloid, with investigative reporter Gali Ginatt’s story that quotes Lucky Amori Farmhouse, a Swedish model and former girlfriend of Israeli drug dealer Yaniv Benaim alias Atala, as saying that Roy was linked to the drugs mafia in Goa.

Lucky has said the police were not interested in recording her statement because they wanted to keep the home minister’s son “safe”.

The investigative feature published in Maariv, which first broke the Goa drug mafia story, says: “More than two months after the affair was first published, another character is joining the main stars: Amori (Lucky) claims that a son of a senior politician was also involved in drug nexus with Benaim and used to visit them often in their house in Anjuna.”

“Amori claims in an interview to Maariv that the man she was talking about is Roy Naik, son of Goa’s home minister Ravi Naik,” it adds.

It quotes Lucky as saying: “They are keeping Roy Naik, the son of the minister safe and they are not going to let me expose him.”

Arlekar, who is also the BJP spokesperson, said: “We have repeatedly demanded a CBI probe into the drug mafia nexus which has been rejected by the chief minister and the home minister.”

Both Ravi and Roy Naik did not respond to calls made to seek their comment on the charges levelled by the BJP. Senior police officials did not offer comments when contacted.

The drug nexus has resulted in the arrest of seven policemen, including senior officers of the elite anti narcotics cell of the Goa Police.