Goa Drug Nexus: Probe Against Cop

Goa police has initiated an inquiry against the Crime Branch official who alerted his colleagues about their arrests in the police-drug peddler nexus case. Police sources said that the official, whose identity has been withheld, had alerted three out of six policemen about the arrest warrants against them.

“One of the constables, Sanjay Parab, who is still absconding was also alerted by this policeman. We have got his phone details and he will be punished, if he is found guilty,” a senior police officer said. Parab himself is attached with the Crime branch and has managed to avoid arrest while rest of the five policemen are being probed in the police custody.

Six policemen including suspended Inspector Ashish Shirodkar were arrested by Crime Branch after an Israeli drug peddler Yaniv Benaim alias Atala claimed that Shirodkar was stealing drugs from the court lockers. The investigation in the nexus had made startling revelations. Public Prosecutor Shiral Monteiro told the court recently that constable Ramchandra Canaconkar, one among the six policemen, had made 400 calls to Atala.

The Crime Branch has also started taking stock of the ‘malkhana’, a place where seized drugs are stored. Officials said that the drugs seized during last ten years have not been destroyed and are still lying there, even as the related cases are disposed off by the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) court.