MAPUSA
With a couple of notorious criminals in jail and police upping the ante in the war against drugs after the tragic death of BJP politician Sonali Phogat, it's safe to conclude that organized crime in Bardez has taken a step back and gangsters are lying low.
But what has come as a pleasant surprise is the emergence of “bouncers” who execute the role of gangsters in several hotels and nightclubs along the Calangute-Anjuna coastal belt.
Several popular nightclubs and restaurant owners have engaged the services of bouncers to control or keep the unruly crowd at bay but they also double up as toughies who are used to threaten the unsuspecting tourists.
Tourists are charged outrageously high food bills and when they protest, the bouncers get into the act threatening them and at times even beating them up. Several tourists have been forcibly promised massage and allied service for a price and after the unsuspecting tourists cough up the money, they are either given a bad deal or in some cases thrashed and bundled out of the outlet without the promised service.
“These bouncers act very rudely and think they are above the law. Even the police refuse to take action against them,” a local, who had a brush with a bouncer in a club in Calangute, said.
Another prominent resident of Calangute recalled how a group of bouncers employed in dance bars came to attack him and even surrounded his house after he took part in a protest to shut down illegal dance bars in the coastal village.
While earlier most non-Goans were employed as bouncers, the latest trend indicates that club and hotel owners also employ local toughies as bouncers.
BARDEZ CRIMINALS
Two months ago, Anjuna Police arrested Tarzan Parsekar a notorious criminal from Arpora-Nagao along with 13 other accused in the stabbing case of a Calangute youth. Along with Parsekar, another notorious criminal Gajendra Singh (alias Chotu) was also arrested in the case.
Police are yet to nab Manoj Singh, brother of Chotu, who has been absconding ever since the stabbing incident. Despite an arrest warrant issued against him, Manoj has remained elusive. Police are in the process of declaring him a proclaimed offender.
In a dastardly act, the gang had stabbed a 30-year-old youth from Calangute, Ravi Shirodkar in the abdomen near the Arpora-Nagoa circle over a previous enmity. The youth survived the attack after undergoing surgery at Goa Medical College, Bambolim.
Similarly, a history-sheeter, Vijay Karbotkar, a resident of Britona was arrested eight months back for carrying a murderous attack on former sarpanch of Aldona Pranesh Naik.
Naik was assaulted in November last year by a gang of seven persons who were armed with choppers and knives while he was having lunch in a restaurant at Carona, Aldona.
The former sarpanch suffered serious injuries on his legs in the deadly attack and had to undergo multiple surgeries at the Goa Medical College and Hospital in Bambolim
Another notorious name in the crime world is Omkar Palyekar of Anjuna-Chapora who is known to be a veritable drug lord of Goa. Palyekar had been charged for the murder of a Nigerian in 2013 besides a couple of cases of attempt to murder are lodged against him.
Surprisingly, he has not been on the list of drugs accused by the Hyderabad Police.
Police sources informed that Palyekar is also allegedly involved in illegal land-grabbing cases in Assagao and Anjuna.
