Goa Police silent after TV expose on drug abuse

PANAJI - The Goa police have gone into a shell after a local television channel Tuesday broadcast a video showing rampant drug abuse at a popular night spot at Arpora village in coastal Goa.

The expose by Goa 365, a local cable news channel shows several foreigners and locals in an intoxicated state at a popular night market, which was inaugurated on Saturday, last week. Senior state police officials were not even willing to see the footage showing the drug abuse, when contacted for a reaction.

The news story which was aired Tuesday evening, shows foreigners grinding cannabis and hashish and then rolling joints in full public view at the night market last Saturday.

Several foreigners seated in a semi circle were also shown drawing deep puffs from a large drug-laced chillum. A chillum is a traditional tapering, cylindrical pipe used to puff cannabis and hashish.

Incidentally, the clip was shot on the same day that the Goa Police claimed to have carried out four anti narcotics raids in different parts of the state.

When contacted for a reaction from the anti narcotics cell Superintendent of Police (SP) Veenu Bansal not only refused to comment on the issue, but also refused to view the TV footage. Bansal also said he was unaware of the drug abuse episode.

Superintendent of Police (CID) Atmaram Deshpande when contacted, only said that the district SP would be asked to investigate the matter.

The local TV channel’s expose comes on the heels of a statement by Agnelo Fernandes, a Congress legislator from Calangute - a coastal tourism hub notorious for sale of narcotics substances, who said that if drug-runners were not controlled soon enough, they would shoot Chief Minister Digambar Kamat and Home Minister Ravi Naik soon.

Fernandes also said that drugs were being sold freely throughout northern Goa.

Last month Naik had told the Goa legislative assembly that the state was free of drugs and that no drug trade was existing in Goa.