Goa cop held for links to drug mafia gets bail
By IANSWednesday, June 2, 2010
PANAJI - A senior police officer arrested for his links to the drug mafia in Goa was Wednesday released on conditional bail by the Panaji bench of the Bombay High Court.
Police inspector Ashish Shirodkar, a former head of the elite Anti Narcotics Cell (ANC), was one of the seven police personnel arrested under the Prevention of Corruption Act and anti-narcotics laws for his links to two Israeli drug dealers - David Driham alias Dudu and Yaniv Benail alias Atala.
Justice N.A. Britto granted Shirodkar bail on a personal bond of Rs.50,000 and one surety of like amount, his lawyer Arun Braz D’Sa told reporters outside the court premises.
Shirodkar has been asked to report to the police headquarters until the time the departmental enquiry initiated against the suspended policeman is completed.
The court has also instructed Shirodkar not to visit the narcotics-infested coastal belt, where the drug mafia operates from.
Shirodkar was on the payrolls of the two Israeli drug dealers, the police claimed. The nexus was busted when a Swedish model uploaded videos, shot on a spycam, of her Israeli ex-boyfriend drug dealer Atala, while he was boasting of his links to the police and politicians.
Atala had also said that he paid regular ‘hafta’ (extortion money) to Shirodkar, who used to sell him seized drugs from the police godown.
Shirodkar’s release on bail comes less than a week after the state government controversially told the high court that the involvement of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was not essential to probe the nexus just yet.
