Dudu diaries: Free, arrested, free again

PANJIM, FEB 4: The governments most prized arrests Dudu and Atala are both free now. Atala arrested in Peru is yet to be brought back, while Dudu has got bail conditionally. Team Herald looks back at how a man like Dudu came to India and established his drug network
From a tourist to a garment trader and an alleged drug dealer! The story of Israeli national David Driham alias Dudu spans over a decade in Goa.
Sources close to Dudu stated that he descended in Goa in 1998 as a tourist. Alike several other Israelis thronging to the Hippie cultured beach of Goa, he return again in 2004 and this time with his then Israeli girlfriend.
Dudu met an Israeli couple in Goa during his stay here at a party. The couple was into the business of food products. It’s here that thoughts of starting a business in Goa germinated in Dudu’s mind.
Two young Israeli business people Ronly Erez alias Shanti and Maria Varela owning the firm ‘Pure Vakhos Trade Pvt Ltd’ at Anjuna agreed to enroll Dudu and his girlfriend in the list of their employees.
The letter of recommendation given by the firm helped Dudu to get a business visa.
Dudu was supposed to handle marketing of the firm, which was into the food products. His girlfriend was given an administrative job.
Erez-Varela firm, which was formally incorporated in 1998 deals in importing and distributing olives, cheese products, chocolates and other packaged food products from European countries.
The firm still exists and caters to the hospitality industry, and supermarkets along Goa’s coastal belt. The firm with 49 per cent share to an Indian partner had come under scanner after Dudu’s arrest in February 2010.
With a responsibility of marketing on his shoulder, Dudu traveled to Bangkok and returned back with a new passport and a visa.
Sources stated that things did not go well for much time. On his return, Dudu changed his mind and told the Israeli business couple that he wanted to start own business.
His girlfriend, however, continued with her commitment before she resigned in 2005.
The anti narcotics squad claimed to have arrested Dudu with cocktail of drugs running in several lakhs of rupees near his Anjuna house on February 21 night. Upon searching his house, the team stumbled on the ‘letter of recommendation’ given by ‘Pure Vakhos Trade Pvt Ltd.’
The couple submitted entire company documents to the then ANC Superintendent of Police Veenu Bansal. They even requested the officers to protect them from the bad press they were getting after Dudu’s arrest. In their letter dated March 4, 2010, copy of which is available with Herald, the couple rubbished allegations that Dudu was the owner of their company and that it dealt with narcotics trade.
“We would like to inform you that the statements like ‘Dudu being an owner of our Company’, ‘our company involved in transfer of narcotics and that ‘it has not done any legitimate business’ by the media and supposedly attributed by officers of your department are incorrect,” the letter addressed to SP ANC read.
Dudu then had started his own venture ‘Dudu Division Import Export Private Ltd’ at Anjuna. Bansal was quoted saying that Dudu’s company did not have Reserve Bank of India permission after which it was closed down. Dudu then traded garments in Anjuna flea market.  Dudu had rented out a counter in the popular beach market and had his men selling imported and local garments.   ANC recently charge-sheeted Dudu before the NDPS Court claimed that he carried out narcotics trade for 12 years from his rented premise in Anjuna.
Advocate Raju Poulekar, his counsel told Herald that Dudu was one of the directors of his company, a fact which the Israeli himself deposed before a local court while being tried for a case of overstaying