Goa Introduction

Variously known as "Pearl of the Orient" and a "Tourist

Paradise", the state of Goa is located on the western
coast of India in the coastal belt known as Konkan.

The magnificent scenic beauty and the architectural

splendours of its temples, churches and old houses have
made Goa a firm favourite with travellers around the
world.

But then, Goa is much more than just beaches and sea. It
has a soul which goes deep into unique history, rich
culture and some of the prettiest natural scenery that
India has to offer.

Much of the real Goa is in its interiors, both inside its

buildings and in the hinterland away from the coastal
area.

Legends from Hindu mythology credit Lord Parshuram, an

incarnation of Lord Vishnu with the creation of Goa.

Over the centuries various dynasties have ruled Goa.

Rashtrakutas, Kadambas, Silaharas, Chalukyas,
Bahamani Muslims and most famously the Portuguese
have been rulers of Goa.

Goa was liberated by the Indian Army from Portuguese

colonisation on December 19, 1961 and became an Union
Territory along with the enclaves of Daman and Diu. On
May 30, 1987 Goa was conferred statehood and became
the 25th state of the Indian Republic.

Having been the meeting point of races, religions and

cultures of East and West over the centuries, Goa has a
multi-hued and distinctive lifestyle quite different from
the rest of India. Hindu and Catholic communities make
up almost the entire population with minority
representation of Muslims and other religions.

All the communities have mutual respect towards one

another and their secular outlook has given Goa a long
and an unbroken tradition of religious harmony. The
warm and tolerant nature of the Goans allows them to
celebrate and enjoy the festivals of various religions such
as Ganesh Chaturthi, Diwali, Christmas, Easter and Id
with equal enthusiasm.

The state of Maharashtra borders Goa on the north, the

state of Karnataka on the south and east. The vast
expanse of the Arabian Sea on the west forms the
magnificent coastline for which Goa is justly famous.

Terekhol (Tiracol), Mandovi, Zuari, Chapora, Sal and

Talpona are the main rivers which weave their way
throughout the state forming the inland waterways
adding beauty and romance to the land besides being
used to transport Goa's main export commodity of Iron
and Manganese ore to Mormugao Harbour. Along the way
to the coast these waterways form estuaries, creeks and
bays breaking the sandy, palm-fringed coastline behind
which lie the fishing villages among the coconut groves.

Panaji (Panjim) is the state capital located on the banks

of the Mandovi river and Vasco, Margao, Mapusa and
Ponda are the other major towns. Goa is serviced by an
international/national airport located at Dabolim near
Vasco. An intra-state and inter-state bus network also
plays an important role in getting locals and visitors alike
in and around Goa.

The vast green expanse of the Sahyadri mountain range

ensures that Goa has an abundance of water. The sea
and rivers abound in seafood - prawns, mackerels,
sardines, crabs and lobsters are the most popular with
the locals and the visitors.

Along with English which is widely spoken all over Goa,

Konkani and Marathi are the state languages. The
national language Hindi is also well understood in most
areas around the state.

Goan cuisine is a blend of different influences the Goans

had to endure during the centuries. The staple food in
Goa is fish and rice, both among the Hindus and the
Catholics. Unlike the Christian food the Hindu Goan food
is not strongly influenced by the Portuguese cuisine.

Since the arrival of the Hippies in the sixties, Goa has

been a major destination on the itinerary of international
and domestic tourists.

The tourist season in Goa begins in late September and

carries on through early March. The weather in these
months is usually dry and pleasantly cool.

Then the weather gets fairly hot around May and by end
of June, Goa receives the full blast of the Indian monsoon
with sudden downpours and tropical thunderstorms.
However it is also during the monsoon that Goa is
probably at its most beautiful, with greenery sprouting all
around.

Besides the natural beauty, the fabulous beaches and

sunshine, travellers to Goa love the laid-back, peaceful,
warm and friendly nature of the Goan people. After all,
more than anywhere else on planet earth, this is a
place where people really know how to relax.

Goa Police RIP

Feb 19th, 2011 | Category: Cover Story, Lead Story

By Rajan Narayan
While Manohar Parrikar sowed the seeds of the demise of the Goa Police by politicising it, Ravi Naik has driven the last nail in its
coffin by criminalising the police force.
WITH THE transfer of Ravindra Yadav, Inspector General Police, who used to prostrate when merely, asked to crawl and the imminent
transfer of the Director General of Police B S Bassi, who was allegedly part of the drug mafia operating through the former SP narcotics,
Veenu Bansal, hopefully some of the most toxic elements in the police force have been removed from the system of law and order in the
state. There are no two questions about it. When I suggested to a senior Goan officer that the policing system in Goa was on the verge of
collapse, he quickly corrected me and told me in an agonised tone that it had already collapsed.
Any policing system anywhere in the state or the country can only be as effective or honest as the political head of the police force. The
policing system in the state, which has been on a very sharp declining curve ever since Manohar Parrikar became the chief minister in
October 2000, has reached the nadir under Ravi Naik, who has transformed it into an milch cow for himself and those on the police force
who have been willing to do his bidding.
BOSCO VICTIMISED

SO much so, all the honest officers such as Bosco George and Vishram Borkar have been marginalised and sidelined. Bosco George, who
was doing a great job as SP North Goa, was shunted to the Raj Bhavan as ADC to the Governor because he demonstrably disapproved of
Ravi Naik’s facetious and ridiculous claim that there were no drug mafias in Goa. Vishram Borkar, the other honest police officer, has been
denied an operational posting and has been reduced to the status of a head clerk at the police headquarters. Leaving the field open to the
Home Minister and the looters and plunderers in the policing system, with discipline and morale being the greatest casualties.

Police personnel at all levels have always had to pay bribes to get jobs in the police force, whether it has been recruitment for constables or
direct recruitment to the rank of police sub inspectors and deputy superintendents of police. Policemen have always had to pay their seniors
and political bosses hefty sums of money for remunerative postings like the Anti Narcotics Cell (ANC) or Traffic Police. Policemen have
always had to pay huge kickbacks to get postings in coastal police stations where the pickings are huge. But never has the police force
become so politicised and criminalised at any time in the post liberation history of the Goa Police than during the current tenure of Ravi Naik
as the home minister of the state.
Look at the record of the police force during Ravi Naik’s second tenure as home minister of the state. It started with the Scarlette Keeling
case, where the evidence was systematically destroyed, the post mortem reports botched and a cover up operation began. The cover-up
operation which did not succeed because of the unrelenting focus of the international media, particularly the tabloid press in the UK. Since
the national media in the country and the local media in Goa take their cues from what happens internationally, the heat began to increase
on Ravi Naik. So the case was transferred to the crime branch, where the DySP in charge, Chandrakant Salgaocar, a veteran at burying and
delaying politically sensitive cases, could be relied upon to hush up any links between the son of the Home Minister, Roy Naik, and the drug
mafia, who were clearly involved - directly or indirectly - in the Scarlette Keeling case.

LUCKY FARMHOUSE

JUST when the media had given up, out of sheer fatigue, on getting any answers let alone any action on the ground from either the Home
Minister or all the senior police officers like the Director General of Police and the DIG Ravindra Yadav, came the Atala or rather the Lucky
Farmhouse video tapes. Which showed alleged drug baron Atala boasting about how officers of the Anti Narcotics Cell supplied him with the
narcotics he trafficked. In a knee jerk reaction, a few police officers were first transferred out of the ANC and then suspended for a while, only
to be quietly reinstated and rehabilitated. When Lucky Farmhouse started threatening to post more videos showing Roy Naik with the drug
kingpin, Atala was literally allowed to get out of the country and out of the reach of the police force in the state. When I called up DIG
Ravindra Yadav and told him that my sources had informed me that Atala was partying in Kathmandu to where he had been granted safe
and secure passage by the Goa Police, under instructions from the home minister, the DIG just shrugged it off. A few days later came the
report that Atala was happily back in Israel.

No sooner fatigue had set in about Atala and the furore over the Lucky Farmhouse video tapes had seemed like dying down, came the sting
operation by Dudu’s girlfriend; Dudu being the other drug baron, already in police custody. The fresh video tapes, which were selectively
leaked to Prudent Media, showed PSI Sunil Guldar not only selling drugs and receiving payments from Dudu, but even implicating his then
superior officer, Veenu Bansal.

Bansal had made a great show of cracking down on the drug mafia while actually being engaged in large scale extortion from them. In the
drug trade circles, the story going around was that Bansal and, allegedly, DGP B S Bassi were being paid huge amounts of money to break
up the Israeli drug mafia so that the Russian drug mafia would have a complete monopoly over the narcotics trade in the state. Significantly,
when media persons confronted Bansal, who in the meanwhile had been transferred to Arunachal Pradesh, about the Gudlar allegations he
asked the media persons to talk to the DGP, insinuating that he was acting at the behest of the DGP.

CIPRIANO

WITH interest in the Dudu or rather the Guldar video tapes fading because, for the media there is always a new sensation to focus on and
they cannot keep a case alive if there is no response from either the Home Minister or the police, came the Cipriano custody death case. The
cook working on a cruise liner was apparently picked up by the police on a complaint from his girlfriend based in Caranzalem that he had
been threatening her with a knife. Cipriano was taken into what the police describe as preventive custody and did not emerge alive. Initially,
there was an attempt by the police, in collusion with the Pathological Department of the GMC and the reporter of a leading daily, to mislead
everybody and create an impression that Cipriano died because of various pre-existing illnesses and not because of brutal torture in police
custody.

SABAJI SHETYE

But, unfortunately for the police, Dr Silvano Sapeco, head of the Department of Forensics in the GMC, categorically told not only the sub-
divisional magistrate investigating the case, Sabaji Shetye, but also the JMFC that Cipriano had died because of two lethal injuries inflicted
on his head while in police custody. Silvano’s verdict on the custodial death of Cipriano was unexpectedly, at least for the police,
corroborated by the SDM who had been asked to hold an inquiry into the circumstances of Cipriano’s death. The immediate reaction of the
police was to suspend one of the two police inspectors attached to the Panaji police station and his subordinates who were on duty when
Cipriano was arrested and died in police custody. It took the police top brass another week to register an FIR against the police personnel in
the Cipriano custodial death case. Significantly, however, the FIR launched does not name any of the police personnel allegedly involved in
the brutal torture of Cipriano leading to his death in police custody.

But all the above cases are, by no means, the worst saga in the history of the functioning of the police force during the second tenure of Ravi
Naik as the home minister. One set of goons owing allegiance to Babush Monserrate captured another set of goons who were their rivals
and Babush Monserrate demanded that the police should come and take custody of the goons his goons had captured. The police refused to
oblige. What enraged Babush was that the police were reluctant to arrest the goons who had apparently bashed up his goons. So what does
the honourable Member of the Legislative Assembly representing the Taleigao constituency and Minister of Education who has sworn to vote
to protect and preserve the Constitution do?

INSURRECTION
HE leads a mob of over a 1000 people, which included the then honourable mayor of Panaji, Tony Rodrigues, to attack the Panaji police
station and brutalise even women constables. To the extent that the forces of law and order, the people to whom the ordinary citizens look to
for protection, had to rush into the police station and close the gates so that they would not be further bruised and battered by Babush and
his goons. This was an act of insurrection against the state. This was an act which Naxalites have been accused of in the Naxal dominated
districts of some states. But in this case it was not a Naxalite who lead an attack against a vital institution and the foundation of law and order
like the principle police station of the capital of Goa, but a member of the legislature. No action was taken against Babush Monserrate.

The thought of arresting him of course never arose because, at that point of time, his continued support to the Digamber Kamat government
was critical to its continued stability, or at least the continuance of Digamber Kamat as the chief minister of the state. Instead, cops - who
had, in the process of arresting their attackers, raided the Monserrate mansion and, in a reflex action of fury and rage, also roughed up the
son of Babush - were suspended and transferred from the Panaji police station on the insistence of Babush Monserrate.

But the rot in the police force did not begin with Ravi Naik. In fact, during his first tenure as home minister and also chief minister in the early
80s, Ravi Naik had received applause and approbation from all law abiding residents of Goa for arresting not only Churchill Alemao, but also
Rudolf Fernandes, Mummy Dearest and gangsters from other parts of the state under the National Security act. This time around of course
Ravi Naik, furious because he was denied the chief minister’s post, has only been using the police machinery to make money and create as
much embarrassment as he can to Chief Minister Digamber Kamat. I understand from my sources in Delhi that Digamber Kamat had the
green signal from no less a person than the president of the Congress and the chairperson of the UPA, Sonia Gandhi, to drop Ravi Naik from
the cabinet or at least relieve him of the Home portfolio. But a Chief Minister, who was more concerned with what will happen to the Bhandari
vote if Ravi Naik was dropped from the cabinet, apparently told the Congress High Command and Sonia Gandhi that it would be political
suicidal to even relieve Ravi Naik of the home portfolio.

MASS RECRUITMENT

IN the last decade, 2000-2010, the politicisation and criminalisation of the police force was started not by Ravi Naik but by the first BJP chief
minister of the state, Manohar Parrikar. It may be recalled that soon after Manohar Parrikar became the chief minister, when he also held the
home ministry, he started a mass recruitment drive of police constables. The police constables recruited during Parrikar’s time were
overwhelmingly, if not exclusively, from the majority community. Moreover, the overwhelming majority of them were young men from the
families of cadres of the RSS and other fundamentalist Hindu organisations in the state.

Their allegiance was not to the police force, but to Manohar Parrikar and the RSS. This was the beginning of the total breakdown of
discipline in the police force and the conscious politicisation of the police force. The constables recruited by Manohar Parrikar and owing
allegiance to him and the RSS were a law unto themselves and the police officers, even at the level of the police inspectors, had no control
over them. The extent of the indiscipline by the newly recruited Parrikar protégés in the police force became evident at the very first passing
out parade of the first batch of recruits, when there was a mutiny. Parrikar’s police used to engage in large scale extortion and paralyse and
persecute the political rivals of the BJP.

FORCE CRIMINALISED
But at least Parrikar only politicised the police. Ravi Naik sounded the death knell of the policing establishment in Goa by criminalising the
police. He made the police partners in his alleged large scale extortion from the drug and other mafias in the state, which are allegedly
coordinated by his son Roy Naik. And I understand that the sons of various police officers also acted as collection agents from the drug
traffickers and the mafia that runs the flesh trade on behalf of Roy, of which they kept a sizable cut for themselves. At the 21st birthday party
of DySP Deu Benaulikar’s son, among the guests of honour who got very special attention even denied to invitees like me were alleged drug
peddlers from Arambol and Morjim.
The policing system in Goa has collapsed. It is now a free for all. Just as Digamber Kamat as chief minister operates exclusively on the
principle of loot and let loot, Ravi Naik, the home minister, operates on the basis of loot for me and you can retain a share of the loot.
Corruption has become institutionalised in the police force. And knowing that they have the full support of the home minister, who will
condone all their sins of omission and commission, the police have become bindaas enough to even cold bloodedly murder suspects or
people framed by influential people in custody. Cipriano Fernandes’ death in police custody is not the death of an individual, but the death of
the police force in the state. RIP Goa Police.

Goa police quiz organisers in drug overdose death

of girl
Panaji: Police have started quizzing the organisers of a popular music festival by the beachside in Goa where a Delhi
girl died due to suspected drug overdose.
"The organisers including ground staff are being quizzed to probe drug angle in the death," Goa police spokesman Atmaram
Deshpande told reporters here today.

Meha Bahuguna, 23, died at Vintage hospital in Panaji yesterday after taking part in the `Sunburn Goa Festival- 2009'. The three-
day long party was held at Candolim beach here between December 27 to 29.

Her post-mortem showed that drug overdose was the reason behind her death. It was immediately not known what kind of drug
the victim had consumed, he said.

Deshapande said the organisers have been asked to furnish the CCTV footage of the entire event, which would be screened to
check whether drug was available at the venue.

He said the police are trying to ascertain whether drugs were transported at the party after purchasing it from outside or it was
available there. "Now even synthetic drug is available which cannot be detected," Deshpande said.

The party which is tagged as Asia's biggest music festival brags itself as a "drug-free zone". The festival organisers, however,
claimed the girl did not consume drugs at the venue. "We had kept a strict surveillance through 40 CCTV cameras and sniffer dogs.

Deshpande said the police are piecing together all the information available from different statements including Meha's friends,
doctors and the organisers to come to a concrete conclusion.

"We are probing all possible angles and cannot state what statements we have received from various witnesses till we come to the
conclusion," he said responding to a question. Meha, a Delhi-born girl, was working in a hotel at Bangalore, and came down to Goa
to participate in the festival.

Her father, Manu Bahuguna has ruled out that his daughter had any history of consuming drugs and on the other hand has said
that she was suffering from bi-polar disorder.

Source: PTI