PORVORIM: More than a month after the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) made one of the major drug recoveries from a factory at Pissurlem Industrial Estate belonging to a BJP office bearer, the State government, the State government has sought information regarding the raid from the central agency. However, the DRI is yet to respond to the formal communication.
“After the raid, we had officially asked the DRI to give us information but we are yet to get a reply,” Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar told the House on the concluding day of the monsoon session of the assembly on Friday.
Parrikar told the House that whatever information Goa government has got about the raid was only through media and from inquiry by local police. He also expressed the possibility that the ketamine found at a factory in the industrial estate might have been manufactured but kept for storing purpose.
“When the racket is spread across multiple states, the state agency can’t act in those cases. The DRI had busted an international racket and raids were conducted at Panvel, Mumbai, Madhya Pradesh and Goa. The DRI has the link and since we have not jurisdiction, we had sought for information from the central agency,” he added while responding to a starred question by Congress legislator Luizinho Faleiro on the drug proliferation in the State.
Through its Operation Vitamine, the DRI raided 14 residences and factories in Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Goa in June and seized 308 kg Ketamine, also known as the ‘date rape drug’. The roots of the entire syndicate were found to be at a factory in North Goa’s Pissurlem, which is owned by BJP’s Vasudev Parab. The DRI had even interrogated him even as the Goa Police have also begun collecting intelligence to gather details about the case.
“We don’t know whether drugs was manufactured here. As per my information, it was stored there,” the CM further said referring to the industrial unit shed, where the seizure took place.
Former chief minister and Congress legislator Pratapsing Rane intervening in the discussion said that the State government should have been serious about the matter as huge quantity of drugs was seized in the raid. Parrikar responding to the statement of Rane asked him whether he has any information or documents related to the raid, then he should furnish it to the State government.
