Goa police making no efforts to contact me: Swedish model

PANAJI - The Goa police appears unwilling to probe a nexus between the police, politicians and the narcotics mafia, alleged a Swedish model whose spycam videos of a notorious Israeli drug dealer had triggered a string of arrests in Goa in March.

Lucky Farmhouse, 33, is the former girlfriend of Israeli drug dealer Yaniv Benaim alias Atala. Her spycam videos of Atala boasting of his links to the police and politicians had exposed the nexus, resulting in the arrest of six policemen, including a police inspector - Ashish Shirodkar, who formerly headed the anti-narcotics operation, and Atala himself.

The model, who later claimed in a recent email interview, that she had video footage proving links of a leading Goan politician’s son’s to the narcotics mafia, has now said that the Goa police were not interested in meeting her to probe deeper into the police-politician-narcotics mafia nexus.

“Still no sign of any police or Interpol. I have read in the news since months back that Goa police have problems in finding me… But no one ever had. It’s very easy to get in contact with me. Specially, when they know where I live, have my phone number, email etc,” Lucky has said in a recent entry (May 9) on her website www.lucky.nu.

In the latest entry titled “Goa cops are ‘hunting’ me”, Lucky also ridicules the Goa police for its ‘inability’ to hunt her down, despite the fact that she was in Mumbai for the last few days shooting for a Bollywood film.

“I check my email almost every day and my phone is always on… (No one has) any problems at all in getting in contact with me. No one else except the Goan Police,” Lucky has said.

The police, whose role in probing the nexus has been suspect from the outset, by their own admission had made no efforts to contact Lucky, weeks after her secretly shot videos exposed one of the biggest police-politician-narcotics mafia nexus in Goa.

Deputy Superintendent of police of the Crime Branch Chandrakant Salgaonkar has now said that the state police had established contact with the Interpol, subsequently.

“We are trying to get in touch with her. We have contacted the Interpol,” Salgaonkar, who has been accused by the opposition of sabotaging the probe, said.