NCP doubts safety of police armoury

PANJIM, AUG 8
“If drugs can go missing from the ‘malkhana’ of Anti-Narcotic Cell, then what is the guarantee that ammunition from the State police armoury was in safe hands?” questioned State Nationalist Congress Party Spokesperson Trajano D’Mello on Sunday.  
D’Mello said he was raising this query as the Home Minister Ravi Naik had made a serious allegation in the House that politicians were paid ‘haftas’ to protect drug lords which points to sordid affairs in the functioning of politicians and police. 
He mentioned this was the reason he doubted the seriousness of the police in guarding the State armoury. It is high time there is a serious investigation by an external agency into the politician-police-drug mafia nexus which may also throw light into this aspect which I have raised, he observed.
In light of recent serious allegations by the home minister, D’Mello called upon the Chief Minister to intervene and handover the investigation to the CBI or any national investigating agency to save the image of the coalition Government and to know what’s rotting where.
Addressing a press conference, he said the so-called nexus attains more seriousness because it could have links to terrorists and the home minister’s charge attains bigger relevance.
But at the same time, D’Mello chided the home minister stating the latter cannot make them believe neither he nor his son was part of the politician-police-drug mafia nexus.
The spokesperson, again, raised serious doubts on the postings of police personnel in all these years. “One of the important aspects of the CBI investigation should focus on postings to find out whether these were routine or were influenced by higher-ups to facilitate the drug trade”, he stated.
D’Mello demanded the investigation should also be able to find out whether the armoury of the police department was intact and whether some of the arms have gone out to the underworld. It is a well-known fact there are a lot of illegal arms in possession of the underworld, he added.
He said he was confident the chief minister would handover the investigation to the CBI because the seriousness of the nexus was such that the “police cannot investigate the police” and the court too had espoused this much-needed probe.  
The Spokesperson said the State NCP has already informed its High Command on the demand for the probe and if no heed was paid they would take a delegation to the CM.