Goa wants Centre to deny Fiona visa, ban entry

“We are writing to the Home and External Affairs Ministries not to issue her visa again to come to India. Her entry into India should be banned,” Goa’s Home Minister Ravi Naik, who was accused by Fiona of having links with the drug trade, told reporters here.

He said the state is inquiring into her background and source of income. “How can she travel with six children to India without any source of income? What was she doing frequenting in Karnataka? We are investigating everything,” Naik said.

Fiona, whose daughter Scarlett was drugged, raped and left to die on Goa’s popular Anjuna beach, had accused the Home Minister and Director General of Police B S Brar of having links with the drug mafia in the state.

Asked whether Fiona would be prosecuted under Goa Children’s Act for neglecting her child, the Home Minister replied in the positive. “Just wait...let this investigation get over,” he specifically reacted to the question.

Admitting to the illicit drug trade in the state, Naik said the police have began swooping down on inflicted areas. “We have been conducting raids and we are very strict,” the minister said. According to Naik, state police’s Anti-Narcotic Cell is doing a tremendously good job and has booked several cases curtailing the trade to a great extent. “There are no rave parties,” he added.

The Home Minister also said he had informed the Swiss Embassy about trafficking of drugs to their country through a chartered flight from Goa. “The drugs are transported to European countries through chartered flights from Goa airport,” he said.

On why they are not being checked at the airport, Naik pointed fingers at the CISF and Central authorities manning the formalities. “It does not fall within our limit,” he said, adding that the Government is taking adequate steps to ensure safety of tourists in the state and the incidents reported are isolated ones.