Sting getsa tail
Now it can be told. The mysterious forces that allegedly trapped the Anti-Narcotics Squad’s (ANC’s) Police Sub-Inspector Sunil Gudlar, who was seen on video tape negotiating with two foreign women over the sale of drugs, have come out in the open. Ayala Driham, sister of jailed drug lord David Driham alias Dudu, has a mission; to establish the innocence of her brother, who she says was ‘framed’ by the Police, and to establish her allegation that it was Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Veenu Bansal who demanded a bribe through Gudlar. This is all down in black and white, in a statement to Crime Branch. Ayala shot Gudlar on a spy-cam in a hotel room. She says Gudlar approached her at the behest of Bansal.
Ayala says that she had to conduct the sting, as former ANC men, including former ANC PSI Gudlar, falsely framed her brother in the drugs case. Gudlar, says Ayala, told her that money was the only option to bail out Dudu. She says after his arrest Dudu was kept in a room next to Bansal’s cabin in the ANC office. “If he was arrested, why was he not in the police lock-up?” she asks. She says she has the evidence to prove her allegations against both ANC officers. She has also handed over the entire sting footage – comprising three tapes exposing a fresh police-drug nexus – to the Crime Branch.
Last year, seven policemen including a police inspector were suspended and arrested for corruption after their link with Dudu and another Israeli drug baron Yaniv Benaim alias Atala, was exposed. This came after Atala’s jilted girlfriend – with the unlikely name of Lucky Farmhouse – had uploaded film clips of Atala’s confession on social websites in which he bragged about his links with Goa police. Atala has now been held, thanks to the red corner alert issued by the Goa Police. Whether he has been arrested in Peru or Israel, and whether he can be actually extradited to India to stand trial, will be known with the next few days.
Ayala’s assertions about Dudu may be a little prejudiced, as she is bound to look upon her brother much more benignly that the rest of us. Still, the evidence she proffers is interesting, and the case sems to get murkier and murkier, as one or the other new ‘nexus’ keeps creeping in. To top it all, there is the always unspoken allegation that Home Minister Ravi Naik’s son Roy has a ‘nexus’ with these druglords. Talk is cheap, of course, and the evidence insufficient so far. Ayala, however, has refrained from making allegations of the typical kind. It is therefore incumbent that these allegations be looked into thoroughly, and some closure brought to the issue.
Kisme kitna dum
In September-October 2010, motorcycle-borne personnel of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) crossed the border, entered Gombir in the Demchok region in Jammu and Kashmir, and threatened civilian workers who were building a shed for the state Rural Development Department. The place is about 300 km south-east of Leh.
And what did the Indian Army do?
It asked the state government to maintain status quo, and to take the permission of the Ministry of Defence before carrying out any construction activities within 50 km of the Line of Actual Control. The local administration is baffled, as it will stop all developmental work in the area. And so are we. Is this how the Indian Army responds to external aggression?
