PANJIM, OCT 5
Goa police today took the custody of a drug peddler undertrial from Arthur Jail in Mumbai in connection with the Anjuna contract killing.
The alleged accused Tukaram Savlo Salgaonkar was termed as an ‘innocent person’ by the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Legislative Assembly session.
Salgaonkar is incidentally a close associate of the Israeli-native drug chief David alias Dudu Driham, who is currently lodged at Sada sub jail at Vasco.
Anjuna police inspector Manjunath Desai confirmed that Salgaonkar has confessed of hatching a conspiracy of killing Samprit Malvankar, who was fatally shot in a bar at Anjuna in last month.
Salgoankar, a member of Israeli drug lord’s gang was arrested by the Mumbai police for transporting drugs from Goa, a year ago. It may be recalled that BJP legislator Dayanand Mandrekar asked the state during the assembly sessions to intervene in the matter and demanded his release.
BJP chief Nitin Gadkari in May 2010 had also tried to justify Mandrekar’s plea to Home Minister Ravi Naik to “help Salgaonkar as he may be innocent.”
However, BJP state president Laxmikant Mandrekar had dismissed his party legislator’s plea saying the latter may have passed a sarcastic comment.
