Panaji, Nov 16 (IANS) What’s the difference between going to a casino and going to a temple, a church, or even a fishing trip? According to Goa’s top cop - none whatsoever!
“Offshore casinos are not illegal here. What is the problem with police officers going to offshore casinos when they are not on duty? Many people go to temples, churches, or on fishing trips… I cannot do anything about it unless casinos are illegal,” said Bhimsain Bassi, Goa’s director general of police while defending controversial partying onboard an offshore casino ship by four superintendents of police and some other senior officers of the Goa police.

Bassi also ruled out any enquiry against the seven officials namely superintendents of police Bosco George (north district), Atmaram Deshpande (CID), Arvind Gawas (traffic), Vishram Borkar (headquarters), deputy superintendents of police Serafin Dias and Gajanan Prabhudessai and police inspector Uttam Rautdessai.

“The home minister is in agreement with me and the honourable leader of opposition has also said that there is nothing wrong with a person in his private capacity going to any place which is legal,” Bassi said.

Bassi’s statement is in contrast to Home Minister Ravi Naik’s comments to the media on Saturday, when Naik had said that he had summoned the DGP and had asked him to initiate an enquiry against the seven officers who were partying at an offshore casino.

The officers partying onboard offshore casino vessel MV Casino Royale had created a stir, after they locked themselves up in a bar room to avoid a media contingent who were invited on board for a press conference.

The senior officials stayed cooped up inside ‘Aqua’, the bar on board the casino vessel, until the media vacated the premises. DGP Bassi, while admitting that the officers had visited the offshore casino, insisted that they had not “gone there to gamble”.

“They (the officers) have told me that they do not go to casinos regularly. And they did not gamble when they went to the offshore casino on Thursday,” Bassi said, insisting that he was saying this purely on the basis of inputs from the seven officers.