I had the time of my life, but I’m dead tired”, exclaimed a twenty something youngster, emerging from the cavernous fortress of the Sunburn EDM festival on day three. Panideep Khotta, another Sunburn goer on the other hand was not that lucky. He was just plain dead.
Not too long after the dead tired man left, there was an ambulance which made its way into the venue of Asia’s largest music festival to pick up Panideep Khotta, who had “collapsed”. The sun soon set on this edition of Sunburn. By the time the sun rose the next morning, Panideep Khotta was no more. He died on his hospital bed. His body soon made its way to the morgue and then the post mortem facility at the Goa Medical College from the District hospital in Mapusa to join the two other bodies of young men from his same State Andhra Pradesh, Sai Prasad Malayala and Venkat Satyanarayana,who died 48 hours ago outside the venue of the festival.
It’s a sad list to be in. A very painful list of people who have died while enjoying this growing festival. Three died in 2019. Earlier, Neha Bahuguna, a 23-year-old girl from Delhi, working at Bengaluru, died in 2009 and Isha Mantri, Mumbai based 27-year-old costume designer of Bollywood had died in 2014. The world has seen dramatic coincidences. Stories of people disappearing in the Bermuda triangle, is mired between fiction and reality. But these deaths are not fictional. While one suspects, that the manner in which the post death situations played out leading to a “conclusion” that they died of every other ailment but drug abuse including heart attack perhaps, was orchestrated, it is becoming difficult to live in denial of the presence of drugs in the environment. It’s like a post truth situation where circumstances and objective facts around each of these deaths, (and in many others which we will elaborate in this column) are less influential in shaping the government’s version of facts, where facts itself take a back seat.
The Sunburn organisers and its well wishers may say that the “gross exaggeration” card of deaths at the festival and “vilification” of a festival that generates Rs 250 crores and boosts tourism is very unfair. But then, is that ‘price’ good enough for these five deaths. There are posts on social media asking “How many more deaths will it take to stop Sunburn” and some former ministers and MLAs, like Churchill Alemao calling for a ban on Sunburn.
While a lot of the narrative is centred around this festival and the debate is on what happens inside the fortress, in the sanctum sanctorum, in the vast expanse of the ground, the stages and in the corners, the real narrative is marinated in the ecosystem which is outside the walls of this fortress. At the same time the festival cannot totally isolate itself from the theatre in which this narrative of drugs, EDMs and deaths is being played out, without necessarily being a protagonist in the script.
But even if it is a backdrop and the reason why young people get on a high, and if there is empirical evidence that more drugs are sold in Goa or the North Goa market during this period, it is serious. You cannot just put it down to the New Year show. The Sunburn festival is the showstopper in that show.
But this argument has to be carefully broken down. Why is there a linkage between drug related death allegations and the Sunburn festival? Is this EDM festival the magnet which draws drug manufactures, big time dealers and an army of peddlers, or is it just a big addition to a space where there is an absolutely easy availability of drugs?
There is really no point stonewalling the fact that drugs of all hues, colours and potency with the promise of myriad experiences including an uncontrollable high, leading to a “collapse” or death, are available.
Sources speak of spots in Assagao and Anjuna where peddlers come to deliver consignments. One tourist actually joked about the drug delivery business. “It’s better than (naming a popular food delivery app), except that you can’t pay by card. But yes, one learns that even digital wallets are being used for money transfers, for purchases of drugs.
This is the ecosystem which is prevalent in the peak tourist season, outside of the Sunburn dates too. What happens during music festivals like this, where the high apparently leads to the enjoyment of the music played at EDMs, is that the ready infrastructure existing for the sale, delivery and purchase of drugs is scaled up to meet demand. It’s a very simple economic system at work.
Will drugs not be sold if there is no Sunburn held? It’s naive to even debate that. The moot point here is, how does the drug lobby manage to scale up its business, while the law enforcement agencies have been unable to sanitise such venues? Even promises made to the High Court in this regard have not been fulfilled while court directives have not been complied with.
Trajan De Mello, now with the Congress, had filed a PIL, WP No. 14/2014, on the “rampant use of drug at EDM houses and the death of youngster occurred due to excess use of drugs at EDM venue” (his words). He referred to the deaths of Neha Bahuguna, and Isha Mantri.
Here are some relevant excerpts from that order of the Bombay High Court in that petition:
l The venues where such musical festivals are conducted, as well as within the radius of at least 500 metres thereof a strict vigil has to be maintained to ensure that no person is in possession of such narcotic drugs and dealt with very severely. In case the concerned Authorities detect any drug abuse at the site or around the vicinity, necessary measures and stringent action would have to be taken not only against the offenders, but also against the officers concerned for dereliction of duties, as such activities are highly deplorable and heart rendering.
l When the concerned authorities choose to permit such musical events, it has to ensure that the apprehension of the public of any drug abuse at such musical festival is completely erased and would be severely dealt with.
l We do not appreciate the delay in proceeding with the investigation of an unfortunate incident that occurred in December, 2014 (death of Isha Mantri), during such music festivals as it would assist in taking adequate precautionary measures for the subsequent events.
The order also mentioned a promise made by a government authority to the Court. “It has also been pointed out by the learned Counsel appearing for the respondents that venues are also sensitised for narcotic drugs before such festivals, by the concerned authorities and the organisers as well.”
From the facts on the ground, on what has been reported and most importantly the statement of a cabinet Minister Michael Lobo that it is definite that the deaths at the Sunburn venue were due to drug overdose, does it appear that the court directions have been fulfilled?
Let us now expand the debate to not just EDM related deaths but those of tourists, both international and domestic. Many of the deaths could well be due to drug overdose. While many international tourists died in mysterious circumstances, their relatives are convinced of foul play. In some cases they ensured that FIRs were lodged and these deaths tried for murder.
Meanwhile unnatural deaths or those with causes of death “reserved” in the four police station areas of Calangute, Pernem, Colva and Canacona have been recorded constantly. However, investigations have never led to the absolute conclusion that (barring a very few) that these are drug related. This is the fig leaf of a defence against the drug related deaths charge which is so strong and clear that it only fails against the ingenuous manner in which the final conclusion is avoided. In the decade leading to August 2015, 157 foreigner deaths were classified as natural or accidental, according to “The Guardian” report based on RTI information.
Records show 246 foreigners have been found dead in Goa in the 12 years up to 2017.
A relative of one of the foreign victims in Goa, was quoted by an international paper as saying “the autopsy is conducted in a very bad manner. The worst aspect is that when we receive bodies of the victims in our countries, there is nothing but skin and bones with all the internal body parts pulled out. They are thrown in a bin or lying for some viscera tests, which in turn means that our doctors back home have nothing to analyse and investigate in terms of internal injuries”.
While deaths of foreigners is a vast ocean of a subject, the shoddiness of the investigations as borne out by statements in foreign media by family members of victims, also points to the fact that drug overdose cases within this lot have all been suppressed too, as have been cases of murder.
If Sunburn is the whipping boy and the punching bag, then the government and perhaps even the Sunburn authorities should look deeply and introspect why the ‘D’ word props up whenever the festival is mentioned in many quarters. And the Tourism Minister who danced at Sunburn (full marks for enthusiasm and youthful spirit) could do better than to say no one forces people to visit the festival, when asked about the deaths people who lost their lives before they turned 35.