Time to hand over drugs cases for independent probe

AERIAL VIEW

Once seen as a paradise, today, only the dubious and notorious tourists looking for such entertainment come to Goa.
One is at a loss of words to express when we see many youth, including locals, involved in the drug peddling business.
What is even more shocking is that every day, we see in the media that drugs worth so and so amount seized, so many persons arrested for possession of drugs, but despite these arrests and seizeures, one fails to understand why the culprits are not discouraged in carrying out the business.
Why is that? Are there any loopholes in the law which the culprits take advantage of? Or are the police or agencies unable to present a water-tight case against the accused in the courts? Do the police deliberately weaken the cases? These are some of the questions we fail to get the answers to.

The sooner we accept this fact, the better for Goa and for our future generation – Drugs trade has entered the roots of Goa, and the Goa Police or probe agencies have miserably failed to check the menace.
It’s proved beyond doubt; State agencies are incapable of handling drug cases. Be it the Crime Branch, the Local police stations or the Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC), they have all failed to eradicate the menace in the State.
While there is no doubt that Goa is losing its popularity worldwide due to the vices of Sex and drugs tourism, it is shocking that neither the State government nor the Police agencies have successfully checked the illicit trade.
Once seen as a paradise, today, only the dubious and notorious tourists looking for such entertainment come to Goa.
One is at a loss of words to express when we see many youth, including locals, involved in the drug peddling business.
What is even more shocking is that every day, we see in the media that drugs worth so and so amount seized, so many persons arrested for possession of drugs, but despite these arrests and seizeures, one fails to understand why the culprits are not discouraged in carrying out the business.
Why is that? Are there any loopholes in the law which the culprits take advantage of? Or are the police or agencies unable to present a water-tight case against the accused in the courts? Do the police deliberately weaken the cases? These are some of the questions we fail to get the answers to.
If there were daily raids and seizures and strict action, the business should have been reduced by now. Isn’t it? But no, it is the other way round.
It is not just the tourists but local youth also getting addicted to drugs which we have seen in several cases.
Make no mistake, the drug trade is not done only by Nigerians or other foreigners and is being made out in the media or by the police. We all know that without the support of local youth, this business would never flourish and reach such heights.
With the recent arrest of Daataprasad Gaonkar and Rama Mandrekar, we must realise the business is not just restricted to coastal areas but has also reached the interiors of Goa as far as Valpoi in Sattari.
Also, now with local youth also getting involved in the business, there is no doubt that they are getting support from the local police.
So now we know that apart from raids and seizures, the local police have no intention of proving the crime and getting the guilty punished.
We also cannot deny that these peddlers or youth have the blessings of local politicians, which keep the police away from acting tough.
Hence, it is high time for the Chief Minister of Goa, Dr Pramod Sawant, who has shown some inclination to eradicate this menace, to order an independent probe. A probe where no Goan officer is involved.
It can be through a retired judge, the Central Bureau of Investigation or maybe even the National Investigating Agency (NIA). There must be no involvement of the State government either. The probe has to be independent if we are serious.
The Anti Narcotics Cell of Goa Police is a failure to such an extent that it is time to disband the same. All drug cases must be probed by a retired judge, and only then we would know to what extent the drugs have made inroads into Goa.