‘Police officers being hounded for exposing Goa drug trade’

PANAJI - Indian Police Service (IPS) officers who had exposed the police-politician-drug mafia nexus are being hounded by the drug mafia, a ruling Congress legislator said Tuesday.

Legislator Dayanand Narvekar also said that the beach shack where British teenager Scarlett Keeling was killed in 2008 was still operating, which reflected the might of the narcotics industry in Goa.

The men who changed the scenario of drugs in Goa are DGP (Bhimsen) Bassi and (Superintendent Veenu) Bansal. Because they have exposed the police-politician-drug mafia nexus, they are sought to be made targets today, Narvekar said.

Referring to the Curlies beach shack at Anjuna, near which holidaying teenager Scarlett Keeling was sexually assaulted and left to die by two beach shack hands in 2008, Narvekar said it was shocking that the beach shack had been allowed to continue.

Curlies bar where Scarlett diedHow is the shack allowed to continue even after the Scarlett murder? Is this your war against drugs? Even today it continues to be sold, the ruling party legislator asked of state Home Minister Ravi Naik, adding that the government should launch a war against drug trade in Goa.

Narvekar’s comments in the state assembly came on the heels of media reports that the Director General of Police (DGP) Bassi and three other IPS officers posted in Goa, have been completely sidelined by the state cadre police officers backed by the ruling political establishment.

While Bansal, an IPS officer, is currently posted in Arunachal Pradesh, DGP Bassi is in the process of seeking a transfer out of Goa.