The decision to reinstate seven policemen suspended for very strong alleged links with the drug mafia is a body blow to brave and integrity filled police officers who are fighting against the nexus of the drug mafia, the police and the politicians.
Former PI of the Anti-Narcotics cell Ashish Shirodkar, PSI Punaji Hawas, a head constable and four constables shot to instant infamy when they were arrested with strong links with Yani Benaim aka Atala, who has been on the radar of the Interpol as well as the Goa police as one of the most wanted kingpins of some international drug syndicates.
Their arrest forced the Goa police to ask itself some very uncomfortable questions as cans of worms were ripped open about the links of the Goa cops not only with Atala, but the grim reality of the involvement of senior politicians of the then ruling Congress dispensation linked to the drug trade. The name of Roy Naik, the son of the former Home Minister Ravi Naik cropped up several times during the investigation and references were made to him in the video grab of Lucky Farmhouse, the estranged girlfriend of Atala, who has gone back to Israel to pursue her first love- pole dancing.
It is shocking that while investigations are going on, these policemen have got reinstated in service albeit to the Goa Reserve Police, which is a parking lot for unwanted and out of favour policemen. The difference between suspension and full service is that they are now a part of the system. A reinstatement is a signal that the government is willing to move on and prima facie finds them worthy enough to join service. This clearly affects the investigation, its course and its outcome.
It is also important to note that Atala who was brought back to India from Peru by the Interpol, is virtually a free man in Goa. He is out of jail, was running an nightclub in Vagator with someone else as a front, lives in a posh rented house and is believed to be running a business he is most adept at. So basically what has happened after five years since the policemen were arrested and Atala fled the country is this. The rogue cops are free and back in service. And one of Goa’s most wanted persons in connection with very strong alleged drug links roams free in Goa’s countryside.
At the same time there has been no effort to control the source of the problem. The running honeymoon between drug dealers, policemen and politicians is on. Unless this is checked, controlled and eradicated, there will be many more Ashish Shriodkars in the system. If the Goa government seriously wages a war on drugs and includes the war on compromised policemen and politicians, as an important element of this war, there is hope.
Goan society is getting completely eroded with the menace of drugs which has now spread to the interior villages. The young are getting affected, the young are dying and the young are losing their futures. By reinstating the seven policemen, the government is telling us that it is either too weak to protect our youth from dying or it is just not interested.
