PANAJI
In the heart of tourism country, there are always conmen lurking in the shade.
Curious characters, who populate the Calangute-Baga stretch, the entertainment hub of the industry, have employed an ingenious method of relieving unsuspecting tourists of their cash.
In the six to seven dance bars lined up along this busy road, prostitution is passe and the con begins with the worn-out cliché, ‘Çan I buy you a drink?’ It’s almost like the movies but with a twist, literally a twist of lime.
For the few female employees positioned at the bar, their job description is to lure male tourists into the establishment and inflate their bar expenses for purchase of nothing but water.
This is the belly of the beast.
Looking for a good time, unsuspecting tourists enter these establishment in the hope of securing the company of a girl for the evening and eventually, end up paying princely sums for ‘tequila shots’ for the girl, which in fact are nothing but water, lime and salt.
In order to verify the inputs received from reliable sources, a visit was paid to one of these establishments located in the Baga lane.
Of the 16 to 18 girls, with the exception of three to four, presently employed at the dance bar were natives of North Eastern states and were between the age group of 20 to 27. Some girls were seated inside the bar, close to the glass wall overlooking the reception counter and beckoned all the potential customers.
The entry charges ranged from Rs 650 to Rs 1,000 with a variation in the number of free drinks that can be availed for the whole evening.
The dance bar is segregated into threeareas, the ‘viewing’ area, the DJ area lined along with the bar counter, which overlooks the small dance floor.
Though the establishment opened its doors at 6.30 pm, business gained pace only after 9 pm when some of the men began to break away from their groups and walked up to one of the girls.
After a quick chat, the two then headed to the bar counter and the girl accepted a ‘tequila’ shot signaling that the ‘deal’ had been struck.
Sources informed that each of these ‘shots’ are listed against the name of the girl. She derives her commission based on the total number of drinks she makes men buy for her each evening. All the while, the customer is unaware that the tequila he is paying for is actually water, lime and salt.
It could not be ascertained if the element of flesh trade or drug trade is involved in these businesses because the girls never leave the room. Moreover, despite its prominent location, Goa Police have yet to sniff out the illegalities underway at these dance bars.
Moreover, the sheer strength of the information network at the disposal of the bar management was revealed when the entire reception counter of the club was cleared away within moments after a person ran upstairs and whispered ‘raid’. The girls and the customers were all pushed towards the secluded dance floor, which cannot be seen easily from outside.
Police sources confirmed that a patrolling team of the crime branch was meandering through the lanes of Baga and Calangute on the same night.
To probe the complicity of the police thereby affording invisibility to these prominently located dance bars, one of the two journalists posed as a Delhi-based travel agent. The ‘travel agent’ offered the manager of the dance bar to direct high-spending tourists to the bar in exchange for a good commission.
Once the manager showed readiness, he was told that the only hurdle would be the fear of police.
On hearing this, the manager confided that the ‘club’ management exercises a double-layer of caution. Firstly, it is ensures that the girls don’t get involved in the flesh trade and secondly, the management delivers a certain amount of ‘protection money’ to the police concerned.
This amount, he claimed, is around Rs 50,000 per month during off-season and tends to go up to Rs one lakh a month during peak tourist season.
