Thaindian News

Panaji, May 4 (IANS) Goa Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Laxmikant Parsenkar Tuesday said the party was worried about the increasing clout of a narcotics mafia in the state, and dismissed its own legislator’s recent plea to help an arrested drug peddler as a “sarcastic joke”.
Siolim legislator Dayanand Mandrekar appealed to Home Minister Ravi Naik in the state assembly March 24 to help release Savlo Salgaonkar - an alleged drug peddler from his constituency, who was arrested by the Mumbai Police recently for possession of drugs.

“Mandrekar must have joked. He might have passed a sarcastic comment,” Parsenkar Tuesday said in reply to a question by a reporter on whether the party endorsed its legislator’s plea.

“We are very much worried about the drugs scenario. The government should handle the issue more seriously,” he told reporters.

Six policemen were arrested recently for their links to the narcotics mafia in Goa.

Swedish model Lucky Farmhouse, whose spycam videos of Israeli drug dealer Yaniv Benaim alias Atala, forced a reluctant police to expose one of the biggest police-drug linkages in the state, has now alleged that she is in possession of videos, which can clearly establish links of a leading politician’s son to the narcotics mafia.

Mandrekar, a former minister, said in the state assembly: “The drugs were given to him (Salgaonkar) by Israeli drug peddler David Griham alias Dudu. He (Salgaonkar) fell into the trap for a few rupees.”

“The home minister should approach the Maharashtra government and help him get out of trouble,” he said during a discussion on supplementary demands.

“If you can help this boy, please do it,” Mandrekar appealed.