Panaji, July 15 (IANS) The alleged role of Goa Home Minister Ravi Naik's son in sheltering the drug mafia in the tourism-oriented state should be probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demanded Friday.


Addressing a press conference at the party head quarters in Panaji, on a day when most local newspapers carried front page stories of Roy Naik's connections to the Israeli drug mafia, leader of opposition Manohar Parrikar said that several Crime Branch officials were linked to the drug mafia and that the state director general of police (DGP) was a lameduck, incapable of taking action.

"Newspapers today have carried about Roy Naik's links to Israeli drug dealer Yaniv Benaim (alias Atala). It is clear now that there is a nexus. The CBI should probe Roy because he was having dealings with the drug mafia," Parrrikar said.

Quoting a Swedish model Lucky Farmhouse, whose whistle-blowing had bust the police-politician drug mafia nexus last year, a section of the local media had said that Roy was linked to an Israeli drug dealer named Atala, who was arrested in Goa last year, but has now jumped bail.

"Roy is not only his son. But he is drawing salary from the home ministry as an aide of the home minister. The office of the home ministry is under cloud in the drug nexus case," Parrikar said.

Alleging that the senior police officers of the Crime Branch had helped Atala jump bail and were neck deep in the drug nexus, Parrikar said that they should be probed first by the CBI, which is now investigating the case.