‘Nexus’ is not quite the word
When a police head constable who is supposed to be on duty at at the ‘zatra’ of Shree Shantadurga Kunkolekarin at Fatorpa is caught over 150km away, near Belgaum, driving his own Maruti Van, in which are two Nepali women, three North Indian men and over Rs25 lakh worth of ‘charas’; is ‘nexus’ quite the appropriate word to describe the connection between certain policemen in Goa and drug dealers? When a Police Sub Inspector who was earlier attached to the elite Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC) visits the house of the girlfriend of a known drug dealer who is under arrest and tries to sell her some ‘charas’, could it be said to be a mere ‘nexus’?
What when 24kg of ‘charas’ go missing from the Police ANC ‘muddemal’ warehouse for seized drugs – allegedly sold back to drug dealers – and the police and Home Department say shamelessly that it was “eaten by white ants”? ‘Nexus’ does not even begin to illustrate the intimate connection some members of Goa’s police force have with illegal narcotics.
When news weekly, ‘India Today’, in its 8 November 2010 issue, described Goa as “a state firmly in the grip of drugs and organised crime”, there was outrage at what was seen to be a cheap attempt to overly sensationalise a problem that is common to cities all over India and the world. But events before and after are making us wonder whether there might have been a kernel of truth in the portrayal of this state as the ‘cocaine coast’.
PSI Sunil Gudlar, the former ANC police officer who was caught on camera in a sting operation by arrested Israeli drug dealer ‘Dudu’ Driham’s sister Ayala, pointed a finger squarely at former Superintendent of Police (SP) in charge of the cell, Veenu Bansal, and accused him of taking a large cut in every rupee of bribe money that he extorted illegally. Gudlar profanely called it ‘Mahatma Gandhi’, referring to the image of the Father of the Nation on Rs500 notes. If nothing, this testifies to the large sums involved. And if Gudlar’s statements, made on candid camera, are true, it would mean that the connections between drug dealers and policemen extend all the way to the very highest echelons of the police hierarchy – the elite Indian Police Service (IPS) officers. Can this be explained adequately by the modest term ‘nexus’?
Both Home Minister Ravi Naik and Director General of Police (DGP) Bhimsain Bassi need to revise their rather optimistic earlier assessment that there is no organised drug trade in Goa. In fact, if recent events are any indication, there seems to be an organised group inside the police force itself that is actively engaged in the drug trade. That a number of these elements appear to be from the Anti-Narcotics Cell is a further cause for concern.
Chief Minister Digambar Kamat has done well to demand a detailed report in this matter within 24 hours from DGP Bhim Sain Bassi. But will such a report actually portray the factual situation?
It’s no ‘nexus’. Popular as it is, that term utterly fails to describe the gravity of the situation. Some sinister criminal elements within the police force are involved not only in aiding and abetting drug dealers, but in peddling the stuff themselves. Can they be allowed to go on? Someone in the government and/or in the higher echelons of the police force has to realise now, at least, that something is deeply wrong, and that there is a need for urgent surgery to excise the rotten elements within the force. Otherwise, the rot will spread and overcome even those good and honest officers who take pride in their work and believe in the force and its ideals.
