IANS

Panaji, Mar 17: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tuesday alleged a massive cover-up in the investigations by the Crime Branch (CB) in the police-narcotics mafia nexus in Goa.

Leader of Opposition Manohar Parrikar told reporters on the sidelines of a public function that Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Chandrakant Salgaokar, the investigating officer probing the case, should be arrested for trying to cover up the nexus.

A senior police inspector and four constables have already been suspended for their links with the narcotics mafia, he said.

The arrest of two Israeli drug peddlers -- David Driham alias Dudu and Yaniv Benhaim alias Atala -- and their subsequent interrogation has revealed links of the narcotics mafia with politicians, policemen and journalists.

While Dudu has reportedly named a former editor of a local English daily and kin of a cabinet minister as being part of the narcotics chain in Goa, Atala has named Police inspector Ashish Shirodkar and several other policemen as being part of the narcotics mafia in the state.

"Police inspector Ashish Shirodkar is being given royal treatment by the Crime Branch. If the investigating officer continues to avoid arresting him, he himself should be arrested immediately," Parrikar said.

The BJP has demanded that the entire mafia nexus be probed by an impartial agency or a retired high court judge, considering that policemen were in the dock themselves.

"The case should be handed over to some other agency that can conduct impartial inquiry into it," Parrikar said, adding that nearly two dozen more police officials have direct links to the narcotics mafia in Goa.

"There are strict guidelines by the Supreme Court that inquiry against any police officer should not be conducted by the state police themselves," Parrikar said.

Goa, a well-known tourist destination that attracts 2.4 million tourists annually, is also known as a narco-tourism destination for foreign tourists.