Ketamine haul: BJP gives clean chit to Vasudev Parab

Panaji: After much dilly dallying, the Goa unit of Bharatiya Janata Party has now admitted that Vasudev Parab — holder of an industrial plot in State-owned industrial estate in North Goa, where a raid by Directorate of Revenue Intelligence(DRI) last week had unearthed a ketamine manufacturing base — was a member of the party.

However the State unit BJP president Vinay Tendulkar, told presspersons here late on Tuesday that Parab was not even “0.1 per cent” involved in ketamine manufacturing.

“Parab does not have 1%, even 0.1% involvement in it. He has not committed a crime. The only crime he has committed is that he had put the plot on rent without informing the GIDC (State-owned Goa Industrial Development Corporation). This is his only crime. We have full faith in Vasudev Parab, that he is not involved in such things,” Mr. Tendulkar said two days after Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar ruled out a probe by State government into the racket, which the DRI has claimed was one of the biggest ever raids on drug manufacturing operations.

Earlier, a BJP spokesperson, while responding to allegations by the main Opposition Congress on BJP’s links with ketamine manufacturers, had said that Mr. Parab, an office-bearer of North Goa district BJP had no links with drug manufacturers.

Mr. Tendulkar said that Mr. Parab’s only fault was he had rented the industrial plot allotted to him by the GIDC to a third party, which is against the rules and the GIDC has issued a show cause notice to him.

“His unit was not functioning well. He was running losses. It had shut down. Somebody had taken it on rent. Mr. Parab would never even go there. He was getting a rent of ₹75,000,” Mr. Tendulkar tried to explain.

The Congress, on the other hand, increased its pressure and demanded that the Chief Minister launch an independent probe into the case.

Raw material used for manufacturing drugs, was also found at the industrial unit which was being used by an NRI Jimi Sandhu to manufacture ketamine.

Ketamine is a common party drug which is also referred to as a date-rape drug.