GOA has joined the BIMARU states (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and others like Karnataka) which have exported their manpower to this state where their illiterate workers can earn double the wages paid in their own home states. The Economic Offences Cell of the Goa Police told the media, it has stumbled upon a massive Rs 100-crore plus fraud, perpetrated over the last 14 years. Goan investors were enticed into putting their life savings in schemes with promises of high returns through share market investment.
The police said one Myron Rodrigues and his wife, Deepali Parab, allegedly diverted these huge sums of money and fled. None of the gullible investors got any returns. Rodrigues, who is said to have absconded to London, allegedly receive Rs130 crore and spent Rs 129 crore over the last 14 years, all of which has emerged from his bank statements, which the Goa Police have managed to obtain.
The Goa Police said they served a summons to Rodrigues, who evaded the summons and fled to London via Dubai. This is according to the Economic Offences Wing (EoW). For the layperson, the EoW is a specialized wing of the Goa Police with men and women trained to detect financial and economic crimes, which the ordinary Bosteao of the Goa Police lacks intelligence in detecting.

EXTRADITION PROCEEDINGS
NOW, extradition proceedings will have to be initiated to force the UK to extradite Rodrigues to Goa. The laborious process of issuing a “Red Corner” alert for wanted criminals, as in the case of terrorists, has been undertaken, SP of Police Rahul Gupta announced this to the media, divulging that the EoC arraigned five more accomplices of Rodrigues. When contacted for their version, a person by the name of Nolan Antao, told the media that neither he nor his director Sushan Ghodge had duped anyone and in fact, they had been made scapegoats by Rodrigues and his wife who had absconded.
Antao said “Neither I or Sushant Ghodge have cheated anybody. Myron Rodrigues had deposited Rs3.25 crore in our real estate company and we immediately deposited the money in the account of the police in compliance of the order passed by a Mumbai court.” Whether this is correct or a routine denial will have to be further investigated by the Goa Police.
However, what emerges is that Goa has now become a haven for alleged economic criminals like Myron Rodrigues, against whom summons will be served as per the new provisions of the BNS law and if proved to be an absconder, he will face a trial and be convicted in absentia, unless he chooses to appear in the court through video conferencing.
In a separate incident, the ongoing petitions being heard at the Goa bench of the Bombay high court against noise pollution, did have a cascading effect when anti-noise pollution activist Dr Inacio Fernandes was assaulted at the Anjuna Gram Sabha meeting, last Sunday. As we all know Anjuna has a beach where music is played loudly quite often well past the deadline. “We have been fooled by our MLA Delilah Lobo and made to feel like dirt by the police. We are not going to surrender because an activist has been slapped by some of these goons,” said Jenny Crasto, who is the co-ordinator of the Vagator Anjuna Chapora unit of the Parish Pastoral Council.
She and others have been vociferous about the ongoing noise pollution along these beach villages, where late night parties continue beyond the curfew hours until 4 am. Another activist, Ana Fernandes, alleged she was thrown down while trying to protect Dr Inacio Fernandes from being roughed up at the Anjuna Gram Sabha meeting.

FRUSTRATED BUSINESSMEN
IN another development, Calangute MLA Michael Lobo identified the man who allegedly assaulted Dr Inacio Fernandes with slaps, Gajanan Tilve, as “my man.” As a caveat, Lobo said the way things turned out at the Anjuna Gram Sabha meeting was not correct and the activist should not have been assaulted. What is surprising is that in another tone, Michael Lobo tried to justify the assault by saying “these (businessmen) were frustrated because Dr Inacio Fernandes visits their restaurants and demands they stop their music at 7 p.m. How can they do that?”
These white collar crimes and goondaism backed by Goan ministers, one of whom is mentioned in Wikipedia as being the “employer of NAS detenue Zenito Cardozo,” is a blot on Goa. The pattern of crime has changed in Goa after the hippies were replaced by the mafia from Russia, Israel and other African nations. The Russians and Israelis banded together to form their own enclaves and shacks where even the signboards and menu cards were put up in their own languages. Today, the influx from Russia and Israel has fallen because both countries are fighting wars on their home fronts.
The Russian-Israeli mafia continues to have a stranglehold along the beaches while drugs continue to be sold with a few sporadic arrests. A PSI Dinesh Gadekar, who refused to register an FIR in a case of land grabbing in 2013 with his delinquent PI in charge of Porvorim police station, against whom 15 complaints were filed in the Goa Police Complaints Authority at Altinho, was promoted to PI despite my innumerable complaints against him. It was a joke that he was posted to the Narcotics Cell when I had complained about his incompetence in refusing to register an FIR in a land grabbing case at Salvador do Mundo. His successor, PSI (now promoted to PI) Videsh Shirodkar was equally incompetent.
The charges have not been framed after 11 years because an incompetent assistant public prosecutor was instrumental in getting the accused discharged by not arguing properly in the courts. His boss, the former Director of Prosecutions, ensured this APP was given a clean chit and even ensured he was promoted to the post of Public Prosecutor. His name appears in the newspapers while unsuspecting Goans do not know how he was unable to oppose a simple discharge application but was protected by his boss.
So, crimes in Goa have now become passe’ with corrupt or incompetent Goa Police personnel bungling in charge-sheeting them, while some incompetent APPs are promoted to Public Prosecutors after ensuring the criminals are acquitted in courts.