Peter de Souza
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PANJIM: The pages of the drug diaries of the Goa police are getting filled with riveting and pathbreaking incidents heaped with shame and scandal against the Goa’s Khaki force. But this one is laced with dark humour, as dark as the “substances” that are the heart of every such story.
Here, the drug protector cops have been suspended following a “consumer” complaint by the arrested drug dealer for not being “protected” in spite of paying protection money of Rs 2 lakh to the two cops. For the dealer, it was a clear case of bad service.
Let’s cut to the chase. Two cops of the Pernem police station are in a fix for double jeopardy – for taking protection money from a UK drug dealer, who wanted to escape arrest; then facing flak from their drug dealer “client” the drug dealer, because honest cops senior to the alleged “rogues in uniform” arrested the UK drug dealer and recovered his drugs.
Thankfully, the head constable, Rajesh Yeshi, and his uniformed partner in alleged crime constable Appa Parab have been suspended, pending a disciplinary inquiry against them.
The order was issued on Saturday based on a report from the Pernem police inspector following a complaint by the UK drug trafficker.
The 75-year-old British national, Stephen Slotwiner, was arrested last month at Madlawada in Pernem for possessing drugs worth Rs 15 lakh. It was found that the drug trafficker was overstaying on a tourist visa.
During the course of the investigation, Slotwiner complained to the police that he had allegedly paid Rs 2 lakh to head constable Yeshi and constable Parab as protection money to carry out his illegal drug trade and help him overstay. Sources in the police told Herald that the duo during a routine exercise to check for overstaying foreigners chanced up on Slotwiner, who was overstaying and also had in his possession 12.2 gms of ganja, 40 Ecstacy tablets, 26 LSD papers, 26 LSD capsules, and MDMA, all worth Rs 15.48 lakh.
However, the cops allegedly told the foreigner that they would speak no ‘evil’ against him if they were paid protection money of Rs 2 lakh, to which Slotwiner obliged.
The joy of the receivers and the giver was short-lived as a few days later, following the Chief Minister’s directive to crack down on the illegal drug trade, the foreigner was arrested by a senior police officer under the supervision of SDPO (DySP) Sidhant Shirodkar and North Goa SP Shobit Saxena.
During interrogation, the British national questioned the Pernem police as to why he was arrested after having paid Rs 2 lakh to two policemen.
Sources reveal that Slotwiner also complained to the British embassy about his arrest despite paying the men in uniform.
Sources said that SP Saxena while addressing senior officers last week, told them that they should personally oversee every operation rather than entrusting the job to the constabulary. The upright North Goa SP pointed out that when given a free hand, the constables could resort to extortion and in sully the image of the police force.
Meanwhile, a lawyer, on condition of anonymity, told Herald that currency of 2,000 pounds and Rs 50,000 found during the raid conducted on the British national had neither been mentioned in the complaint by the police nor in the FIR.
When contacted, Pernem PI Dattaram Raut initially feigned ignorance about the matter, but later said that he had sent a confidential report to his higher-ups against the duo.
