“Best quality ganja, charas and Meth in Goa is available in Colvale jail,” claims released under trial

PANAJI: A prominent and well-known, outspoken Goan who had spent several days as an under trial accused at the Colvale Central jail in Goa, before being released on bail, has alleged that the “best quality ganja, charas and a variety of other chemical drugs are available in the Colvale jail, Goa and that an interstate racket of trafficking of drugs exists, with the active connivance of officials, both within and without the jail”.

The drugs supplied to convicts and under trails come from in Goa and outside Goa and a network of peddlers, carriers and traffickers ensures that products or “maal” is available on demand. Further, cash is also smuggled in or payments are made outside the jail by associates who pay the “transporters” once the products are delivered.

The remarks and comments came during a discussion on the drugs racket in Goa and the recent arrest of two restaurant and club owners – Edwin Nunes of Curlies restaurant at Anjuna and John Stephen D’Souza alias Steve, owner of the Hill Top restaurant at Vagator.

The prominent Goan whose name we have with-held as the conversation was “strictly off-the-record and confidential” said that one thing he learnt while he was incarcerated at the Colvale jail was the fact that there was a thriving drug racket inside the jail, supported by the jail guards and the best quality drugs in the entire coastal state were in fact easily available inside the Colvale Central jail.

Meanwhile in a related development, the Colvale police have filed a charge sheet against a jail guard Suraj Gawde, recently nabbed for smuggling drugs into the so-called high-security prison, and are awaiting the forensic voice analysis report to strengthen their case for an upcoming trial, a report in The Goan said.

The Goa Police are relying on forensic analysis of voice samples retrieved from the recorded phone conversation between a jail guard and an under trial, to expose that drug nexus is thriving in Colvale Central Jail.

The suspended official had confessed to the Colvale police that the narcotic contraband was brought by him from one Yogesh Pagi in Cuncolim to be delivered to under trial prisoner Vikat Bhagat lodged in the jail.

Bhagat, a hardened criminal (who doubled up as a tourist guide before his arrest) is facing rape and murder charges and is behind bars since 2017 for allegedly raping and killing an Irish tourist in Canacona.

He is said to operate a parallel administration inside the jail and runs a thriving drug racket with his connections with drug peddlers in South Goa.

Several Goa police staff at the lower rungs of the force are also on his payroll  and are part of the racket.

The police have tried to seize the SIM cards used in the racket, but according to our source, there are more than 100 active SIM cards hidden in the jail and used by criminals to communicate with their associates outside.

Jail officials do not take requests for ‘search and seizure’ by the State police seriously and only a half-hearted attempt is made to locate SIM cards and phones.

Charged phone batteries are smuggled in by the jail guards everyday, who bring in fully charged batteries and take out the used ones for charging.

According to sources and media reports, jail officials are not co-operating with the Goa police investigating team probing the drug racket inside the jail.

Sandesh Varak, a security guard attached to Goa State Human Resources Development and deployed at the Colvale jail was caught red-handed with ganja and cocaine on his person.

He confessed he was to hand over the drugs to an under trial inmate Satish Koli, who is another known drug lord inside the Colvale jail with a well-connected peddler network in the coastal belts.

Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant who holds the Home portfolio, in an attempt to crack down and put an end to the trafficking of narcotics inside the jail handed over the entire security management of the Central Jail to the Goa police department.

Earlier the security at the Colvale jail was managed by “guards” on the rolls of the Goa State Human Resources Development and other government agencies.