Probe into politician-cops-drug mafia nexus hits dead end?

PANAJI - The much touted investigation into Goa’s police-politician-narcotics mafia nexus may have reached a dead end, a senior crime branch official has admitted.

The official also denied claims by Swedish model Lucky Farmhouse, former girlfriend of arrested Israeli drug dealer Yaniv Benaim alias Atala, that no efforts had been made by the Goa police to contact her for more information on the nexus.

Lucky’s spycam videos of Atala boasting of his links to the police and politicians resulted in the arrest of six policemen and Atala himself.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Chandrakant Salgaonkar told IANS that barring the initial arrest of six people, including a senior police inspector, in March for their links with the drugs mafia, there were no fresh leads or names to work on.

“Atala was in our custody (police) for only 14 days. He has not told us anything much. We have already arrested six people and one more person is absconding. There are no more names with us to follow up right now. The spycam videos which Lucky claims to have would help in further investigation,” Salgaonkar said, adding that the drug dealer had not revealed names of any politician or that of more policemen during interrogation.

The official, who is the main supervisory investigation official appointed to probe the nexus between policemen, politicians and the narcotics mafia, has been accused by the opposition of sabotaging the probe, which has generated considerable public interest here.

Leader of opposition Manohar Parrikar has already demanded the arrest of Salgaonkar for going slow on policemen linked to the narcotics mafia.

Salgaonkar admitted that police had not been able to get even Lucky’s residential address.

“We got only the name from Atala. We did not even know her address in Sweden,” Salgaonkar said, even as he refuted allegations of police lethargy while conducting the probe.

“No, no… what do you mean we were not doing anything for two months? We are in touch with the Swedish embassy. We are in touch with them,” Salgaonkar said.

The senior crime branch official was also at a loss to explain why the police had not taken any action against the owners of the leased house, where Atala had been staying for months without proper documentation. The house is reportedly owned by a close relative of a superintendent of police.

“We have not taken any action against the house owner yet. But, everything will be clear once we file a chargesheet. About which officer’s house it was, why don’t you ask the superintendent of police (SP) himself?” Salgaonkar said.

The BJP has already demanded a CBI probe into fresh allegations made by Lucky that a son of a senior politician had links with the narcotics mafia.