Goa home minister bolts from media

PANAJI - In an extraordinary happening at the Goa Raj Bhavan, Home Minister Ravi Naik Thursday ran some 50 metres to his car with a pack of reporters at his heels, asking him questions on the sloppy police investigations into the alleged police-politician-drug mafia nexus.

Dressed in a half-sleeved white shirt and black trousers for the swearing in ceremony of Vishwajeet Rane into the cabinet, the bespectacled Ravi Naik had just finished his cup of tea when a reporter asked him to comment on the slack investigations into the drug mafia nexus and the surprising release of Iraeli drug dealer Yaniv Benaim alias Atala on conditional bail earlier this week.

On hearing the question, the home minister hurriedly turned around and scampered off across the Raj Bhavan’s grand hall where several other ministers, legislators, bureaucrats were present. The media persons, including a bevy of camerapersons followed him, still asking him questions about how Atala - who is alleged to have links to a cabinet minister’s son - was released on conditional bail.

The home minister’s continued sprinting down the long flight of stairs leading to the driveway, where journalists finally accosted Naik before he jumped into his official car.

An embarrassed Naik, whose home department has been accused of sabotaging the investigations into the high profile drug nexus in which senior politicians and police officials are reported to be involved, then said he had nothing to do with the functioning of the police department.

Naik then called Director General of Police Bhimsain Bassi, who was also present at the function, to informally brief the media on the drug nexus issue.

Both the opposition and the media have criticised the police department of sabotaging the investigations into the police-politician-drug mafia nexus. The Panaji bench of the Bombay High Court has also said that the Goa government was unwilling to hand over the drug nexus probe to a central government agency “because more skeletons may tumble out from the cupboard of the police drug dealers nexus”.

“Is there anyone in Goa, not connected with the police, drug dealers and politicians, who does not believe that this nexus exists only because of political patronage?” the court asked.

–Indo Asian News Service