MAPUSA
Coming under intense pressure to act, Anjuna Police arrested two persons for allegedly peddling drugs in the premises of two popular clubs along the Anjuna coast early Tuesday morning.
Later in the afternoon, the owners of the two clubs were also arrested by the police, and presently, both are in police lockup.
Edwin Nunes, owner of Curlies Shack, and Rohan Shetty, operator of Nyex Club, were arrested for allegedly allowing persons to peddle drugs from within their premises, Anjuna Police said.
Sources disclosed that both owners have moved bail application in the NDPS Court, Mapusa, which will come up for hearing on Wednesday.
After the death of two tourists suspected of drug overdose in Anjuna on Saturday, police went on overdrive and arrested one person on Sunday evening. The next morning, they arrested three more individuals - all students.
Failing to lay their hands on the big sharks and with pressure building up, Anjuna Police and the district team under overall supervision of North Goa SP Chandan Chowdhary conducted a raid on the two clubs - Curlies and Nyex - late Monday night and managed to arrest one person each from the clubs for allegedly selling drugs.
"We conducted an elaborate operation, which went on till 3 in the morning, leading to the arrest of a waiter and another person from the two clubs. Later, the owner of Curlies and the operator of Nyex were also arrested," said SP Chowdhary.
Revealing the details of the arrest, Anjuna PI Rahul Parab said the accused, Manjunath Anverikar (21) of Pernem and working as a waiter at Curlies Shack was arrested selling drugs within the premises early Tuesday morning.
The accused was found in possession of 7.3 gms of drug suspected to be charas worth Rs 8,000.
PI Parab said in the course of investigation, it was found that the owner of Curlies, Edwin Nunes (39) allowed the waiter to use his premises to peddle drugs. Subsequently, Nunes was also arrested under Section 25 of NDPS Act.
Coincidentally, late Monday night, another accused, Joe Raymon Junior (21), a native of Kerala, was also arrested selling drugs within the premises of Nyex Club.
The accused was found in possession of 11.04 gms of drug suspected to be charas worth Rs 12,000 and 0.8 gms of a crystal substance suspected to be MDMARs worth Rs 28,000.
"The operator of Nyex Club, Rohan Shetty (35) allowed the accused, Raymon Junior to peddle drugs from within his premises and was thus arrested under Section 25 of NDPS Act," Anjuna PI said.
Curlies has been shrouded with controversy and has a history of playing loud music. The shack owner was booked on a number of occasions in the past for playing loud music till late in the night.
Meanwhile, peace has returned to the village of Anjuna as late night parties and loud music has completely stopped along the coastal belt after the pro-active action by Anjuna Police.
"Under Section 25 of the NDPS Act, the owner of the premises, where any such drug-related activity has taken place, either consumption or sale of drugs, is equally responsible for the same offence. So on that ground, we have arrested the owner of Curlies and the operator of Nyex," SP Chowdhary added.
