PANAJI: Alleging that the Goa police are trying to sabotage the investigation in the drug case linked to the Israeli drug dealer, Yaniv Benaim alias Atala, in order to cover up someone, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday said that the disappearance of the notorious drug trader is evidence to the fact that Goa police cannot investigate the matter properly, and hence the police-drug traders nexus allegations must be probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The opposition party also reiterated its demand that the Home Minister, Mr Ravi Naik must resign from the Cabinet for his failure to handle home department, and if he fails to do so, should be at least stripped of this portfolio.
It may be recalled that the police have already confirmed about the disappearance of Atala and have said that they would be writing to the court informing about the missing of the drug trader.
The chief spokesperson of the state unit of the BJP, Mr Rajendra Arlekar, addressing the media at the party’s city headquarters said that Atala was released by the court on conditional bail and directed to visit the office of the Crime Branch, every Monday, besides avoid movement along the state’s coastline and refrain from leaving Goa. “The police were so negligent that they did not give any importance to the failure of Atala to visit the Crime Branch office, for two consecutive weeks,” he noted, pointing out that the drug trader was last seen by someone on July 4, 2010.
“This clearly meant that the State Legislative Assembly, whose monsoon session opened on July 19, was kept in the dark about Atala’s disappearance,” Mr Arlekar said, charging that the Home Minister, Mr Ravi Naik, who was fully aware of the situation, made no mention about Atala’s escape in his statement before the House, on the last day of the Assembly session.
“The Goan public need to know the reason behind the decision of the Home Minister to hide this fact,” he demanded, stating that the police have once again proved their incompetence by failing to trace the escaped accused, for more than a month.
Observing that the Superintendent of Police (Crime Branch), Mr Chandrakant Salgaonkar is not the only one who should be probed for the police-drug traders’ nexus, but the entire police system including the higher authorities in the police force need to be investigated by the CBI for the same, Mr Arlekar said that it has now been proved that the Goa police will not be able to carry out the related investigation in an impartial manner. Replying to a question, Mr Arlekar said that the BJP delegations have time and again met the Governor, Dr S S Sidhu and discussed the issue as regards the police-drug traders’ nexus with him.
“However, we found him to be ineffective in handling the situation,” he stated, pointing out, “We don’t know whether Dr Sidhu discussed the matter with the Chief Minister, Mr Digambar Kamat or not, and therefore, have decided to spread related public awareness through various public meetings.”
Answering another question, Mr Arlekar informed that the state BJP unit would be following up formation of pressure groups at the central level for pursuing the matter.