Panaji, June 4 (IANS) The journalist community here has reacted with shock and called for soul-searching after interrogation of an Israeli drug dealer exposed the involvement of mediapersons in the police-politician-drug mafia nexus in Goa.
Speaking to IANS Friday, Prakash Kamat, president of the Goa Union of Journalists (GUJ) said an emergency meeting of its members had been called Saturday to discuss the issue.
‘I am deeply concerned and pained by what has happened. A deep soul-searching for the community is needed,’ said the president of GUJ, a union which represents a majority of the journalists in the state.
‘I had earlier met the director general of police (DGP) with a GUJ delegation asking him to share names of journalists, if any are involved in the drug mafia,’ Kamat said, adding that the emergency meeting would decide the future course of action on the matter.
Ashwin Tombat, editor of the English newsdaily Herald said: ‘There is a statement made by a drug dealer. Unless it is backed up by evidence, we must treat it circumspectly. But if it is true, it is really shocking.’
Tombat is a member of the Goa Editor’s guild (GEG), an informal consortium of editors in the state.
‘The journalist community in Goa should now look inwards. The community should react together in our forums,’ Tombat said.
In a custodial interrogation report submitted by the police to the Panaji bench of the Bombay High court, the investigators quoted arrested Israeli drug dealer David Driham alias Dudu as having confessed to links with several journalists including Vilas Mahadick, a senior crime reporter working for vernacular Dainik Gomantak.
The police quoting Dudu also said that the latter had appointed a senior police inspector Ashish Shirodkar (since arrested for his links to the drugs mafia) to pay ‘hafta’ or protection money to journalists in order to avoid adverse publicity.
Editor of Dainik Gomantak Suresh Naik has said the management was aware of the matter and ‘we are taking due cognizance of the high court order’.
