DID ATALA SLIP AWAY OR GOA COPS GAVE HIM A CHANCE?

In the latest developments in Goa, the fresh news is the notorious drug dealer Atala has given the cops a slip. Did he really give the cops a slip or was he slipped away the by the cops themselves?

Israeli Drug Dealer Atala

Atala who is also considered to be the main link in the police drug nexus, has managed somehow to slip away from the Indian law. He has been missing for last two months or so. Atala an Israeli citizen was released by the NDPS Court on bail with a condition that he should not leave Goa or the country.

The investigating officer of the crime branch of Goa Police, Chandrakant Salgaoncar has stated that they did not have any clues of the whereabouts of Yaniv Benahim alias Atala since his release on bail. Salgaoncar further said that since Atala failed to report to the crime branch, a police team was sent out to trace him. “We were told that he had checked out on July 4 from Angel Resorts, Porvorim and thereafter we don’t know where he is”, Salgaoncar said.

Atala was arrested in the month of March following the uploading of the video by Lucky Farmhouse the girlfriend of Atala exposing the policemen headed by Ashish Shirodkar and their alleged involvement with Atala and the confiscated drugs from the Police Head Quarters.

According to the hotel staff, Atala had checked out on 4th July 2010. Salgaoncar also said that they (police) will be writing to the court that Atala was missing. There was furor in the recent assembly session about the case to be handed over to the CBI for proper and thorough investigation. Much pressure was put by the opposition leader Manohar Parrikar on a reluctant Chief Minister Digamber Kamat. The opposition leader had also implicated home minister Ravi Naik and his son in the police drug nexus case.

Both the Chief Minister and home minister refused to hand over the case to the CBI saying that the local Goa police were doing a professional job. Apart from the BJP, the coalition partner of the ruling party congress, the NCP had also immensely pressurised the CM and the HM to hand over the case to CBI. The whole of Goa had expressed fears of the corrupt investigating officer Chandrakant Salgaoncar's involvement into the nexus and his ways of sabotaging the investigation in a very professional way.