18 Sep 2020  |   05:34am IST

Locals of Loutolim remember Chris as a kid but haven’t seen him for long

Still coming to terms with how a village boy could be linked to such a big narco-case, which the nation is following

Team Herald

LOUTOLIM (SALCETE): The  Church square in Loutolim is a throwback to a languid past and easy quiet times, the unlikeliest of spots which could be linked to a national investigation exploring the nexus between Bollywood, international drug syndicates and the mysterious death of movie star Sushant Singh Rajput. Not too many in Loutolim, in the interior recesses of Salcete where very few (before the influx of migrants) speak or understood Hindi fluently, have been following the case with any amount of intensity.

The locals of the village and the adjoining one Camurlim (also known as Ambora) are just about getting to know about the involvement of their local lad Chris getting arrested in “such a big case”. 

Sitting in his shop in the centre of the market, a shopkeeper says, “We knew the fellow as a small kid. His grandmother lived in Loutolim. But his mother has been out of the village, she was probably abroad.”

They were a simple family of the village and as things are there, known to all. “His name came up in the Maina-Curtorim case where two boys were killed. But he was never caught,” one veteran shop owner said.

Chris' mother, it was locally learnt moved to an apartment in Navelim. While the flat is on the first floor, there is a mechanic and a tyre shop and a saloon on the ground floor. The tenants confirm that Maria comes and picks up the rent for the shops herself. The Karnataka couple who live on the ground floor confirms that they have seen Chris sometimes though their interaction was with his mother.

From these humble and quiet beginnings, it is quite a leap or a plunge to be seen on the same prism as international drug lobbies. According to reports of the NCB investigations, Chris’ name was reportedly mentioned, as a drugs supplier, by another accused in the Rhea Chakraborty related drug case, Anuj Keswani, who in turn was allegedly one of the main suppliers of drugs to Showik Chakraborty and main accused Rhea Chakraborty, allegedly via Kaizan Ibrahim, who was also booked in the case.