PANAJI
While the infamous Curlies beach shack restaurant has come into the spotlight, two drug overdose deaths within eight days and the arrest of Anjuna local Preetesh Borkar in Hyderabad (Telangana) have become a headache for Goa Police.
The dirty narcotics business continues to trap the State and arguably several beachside structures are operating the illegal trade. Sources said that shacks and commercial establishments, massively frequented by tourists, earn a minimum of Rs 5 lakh daily allegedly by way of selling drugs.
The Anjuna stretch was in the news when British teen Scarlet Eden Keeling was also drugged as per the witnesses before she died. The Goan was the first to highlight that Curlies shack, where Sonali Phogat partied with her personal assistant Sudhir Sangwan and her friend Sukhwinder Singh “ currently in police custody “ grabbed the negative limelight 15 years after the infamous case.
Curlies' owner Edwin Nunes was arrested after much hullabaloo. Police records show he was arrested quite a few times in the past such as in 2017 and 2014. While he was investigated under various North District SPs “ Bosco George, Vijay Singh, Chandan Chowdhary; he now faces a new challenge to prove his innocence in the ongoing controversy.
His name along with the others, including his rivals in the tourism business, also cropped up in another drug-related offence registered by the Hyderabad Narcotic Enforcement Wing (H-NEW) and the Osmania University police earlier this month. The State police are tight-lipped on the case citing jurisdiction issues.
The Puducherry student’s drug overdose death during the long Independence Day weekend has also kept the police on their toes.
