Don't be surprised if 'nude parties' are indeed held in Goa

Goa Police has got hold of the event organiser who tarnished Goa’s image globally with his ‘prank’ of a ‘nude party’ at Morjim. His transfer to Goa comes a week after his arrest, which came after a massive manhunt by a specially constituted Goa Police team. Thirty-year-old Armaan Mehta, arrested from his native village in Katihar, Bihar on September 22, is also being probed for human trafficking even as a First Information Report (FIR) in connection with the nude party poster has been registered against him under Section 67 of the IT Act and Indecent Representation of Women Act.

Now, what is interesting is people in the government were fast enough to call the nude party poster another fake story of social media, which actually wasn’t, if police are to be believed. The Crime Branch, investigating the case says that Mehta tried to lure people through the offensive poster in a bid to recover losses he suffered in his business. What is even more important is that he was working with his friends in organising events and parties in New Delhi and arranged girls from his contacts to participate in parties.

Police say that reeling under a money issue and unemployment for six months, Mehta tried to float a poster claiming to organise nude pool parties in Goa, a State which he had visited with his friends in October last year. Police said that the accused downloaded a few pictures from the Internet, edited them using a mobile app and circulated them through social media. He, however, panicked and switched his phone off after he began receiving inquiries from India and abroad.

Now while there is no evidence to prove that the party was indeed organised in Goa, but going by the antecedents of the person alleged to be involved in organising such parties, one cannot just reject the claim as ‘fake’. The police need to do much more than just treat him like a person who is involved in social media ‘fakery’. Also, one must also consider that Goa is gaining a sort of dubious popularity across the globe for ‘drugs’ and ‘prostitution’ and one cannot totally rule out that such parties are being organised here.

Pimps across North Goa beaches are alleged to become active after the sun sets, right under the nose of the beat constables and even the top officers are aware of what is happening, but refuse to act for various reasons. Hundreds of massage parlours, some of which are alleged to double up as prostitution dens, have mushroomed in the coastal belt without proper permissions and licences. While the government authorities turn a blind eye, the panchayats are also raking in moolah at the cost of local Goans. Right from the administration to the top police officer to the bottom of the hierarchy, everybody knows what is happening but nobody wants to act.

It is true that the prostitution business has now gone online and deals happen on cyberspace rather than face to face or over the phone, but the ground reality remains what is the police intelligence doing? Why is the Goa CID or beat police not being able to check what’s going around in their jurisdiction?

Morjim and Arambol, for example are notorious for rave parties, wherein drugs and sex flow freely and yet the police claim they have no idea and that the people have to complain and only then they can act. There has been uproar on social media about the ‘nude party’ and Goa Police were quick to act and arrest him, but aren’t there thousands of Mehtas operating in Goa with the blessings of the police and politicians? When will they come under the police net? Don’t be surprised if such parties are indeed being organised in Goa.