Goa Home Minister says son not involved in drug trade

Panaji, Jan 29 (PTI) Goa Home Minister Ravi Naik todaysaid his son''s name has been unnecessarily dragged into drugtrade and he is a victim of mistaken identity.

He said his son Roy Naik has been misunderstood withone Roy Fernandes, who is into drug trade. "I have enoughevidence to show that one Roy Fernandes was in drug businesswith the blessings of then (BJP) Chief Minister ManoharParrikar and his MLAs," Naik told reporters here.

He said his son''s name has been unnecessarily draggedinto controversy by political elements who are unhappy withthe state police''s crackdown on narcotics dealers.

Naik claimed several BJP leaders were gettingprotection money from drug dealers, but this practice stoppedever since he took over the reigns of Home Ministry.

Roy Naik''s name came into focus after Swedish modelLucky Farmhouse, former girlfriend of Israeli drug dealerYaniv Benaim alias Atala, last year alleged that he frequentedtheir residence in Anjuna near here.

"Some politicians and persons influenced by theOpposition parties tried to gain publicity on the drug issue,"Naik said, adding he had referred the case to CBI in November.

To a query, he said Chief Secretary Sanjay Srivastavadelayed the handing over of the drug-police nexus probe toCBI. "I had cleared the file in November. You can ask ChiefSecretary why he delayed handing over of the probe to CBI."

The nexus was exposed through two sting operations inthe last one year. In the first, Atala was shown braggingabout his alleged links with the police. Seven policemen werearrested after the video went public.

A month back, two foreign girls had exposed Police Sub-Inspector Sunil Guddler allegedly pushing drugs.