The normal business of life and living never gets really disrupted in Goa even as pretty acceptable circumstances like a government falling, a fight happening, or even politicians running to courts to stay out of jail take place. Therefore while some members of Team Herald were staking out politicians and officials and the courts, covering the Louis Berger bribery story, another team was playing detective in the jungles of a far flung corner in Sankhalim keeping a close vigil on the gambling dens in the jungles, run by politicians and backed by the local police.
Our front page lead story which covers this vigil and our discovery shocked us even in these cynical times. The brazenness with which these completely illegal dens are run, the huge wads of cash that lie around, the intricate system of money handlers who are present in each of these places and the presence of politicians sitting on the floor and gambling was a live telecast of the criminal politician, police nexus that exists in the state.
Herald’s reporter and photographer, who mingled with the gamblers late into the night without attracting much attention, had their hidden cameras and video recorders running. One of the shots caught Uday Palekar, the Congress candidate from Siolim in the 2012 assembly elections, who was brought into the party by Vishwajeet Rane, the Valpoi MLA, gambling. One of the dens, (could be the one where Paleykar was playing in) is controlled by the brother of one of the senior most BJP party functionaries, who we are not naming because we didn’t manage to get him on camera. Unfortunately, he didn’t arrive on the scene through the days when we kept watch from late at night to early morning.
The role of the police was thoroughly exposed. Not only were they conspicuous by their absence, they failed to turn up even when they were called by the Herald reporter and told that there was heavy gambling going on in the Mollem area. The Herald reporter made calls to the control room from right next to the gambling dens. Within 20 minutes, the police did not arrive but the lights went off in all four dens, the gamblers trooped out and soon the place looked like any deserted jungle hut. Our reporter had to beat a hasty retreat as the police must have tipped off those running the dens that some unfriendly force was watching.
In a situation like this, it is impossible to suggest a way forward which is practical and applicable to the local situation. When the police force and local politicians linked to the state leadership across both the parties are active players, can an honest raid be expected? It is only a local people’s movement led by locals who believe that this is destroying society as much as casinos are in Panjim, that the fight against this will get some traction. Very little is expected from a government which sits on a House Committee report on the Criminal-Police and drug dealer nexus for close to two years or allows the brother of one of its senior most leaders to run the racket, to cleanse itself.
Herald, meanwhile, will continue to do its job of arriving at such places, watching and reporting so that you know what the government does under cover.
