A city activist has alleged that Goa's Fisheries Minister Vinod Palienkar is involved in a sex scandal and has threatened to submit video footage as proof to Goa Governor Mridula Sinha, even as the minister has alleged that the state's drug mafia is trying to tarnish his image with the alleagations.
The controversy erupted on Sunday, after the activist claimed that he had sought an appointment with Sinha, in order to hand over the alleged footage, which allegedly shows Palienkar, an MlA from the Siolim assembly constituency, in a compromising position with a female constituent, while also demanding the minister's resignation. “An appointment with Sinha has been sought for handing over of the evidence. Parrikar should dismiss the minister from the cabinet,” Rodrigues has said.
Palienkar, meanwhile, has claimed that attempts were being made by the drug mafia to slander him, because of his “uncompromising” crackdown on the narcotics lobby.
“If he (Rodrigues) says that there is a CD, ask him for details. I do not know what to sayIJ He has neither called me nor spoken to me. It is a public campaign. I believe that this is happening because of my uncompromising stand and actions against drug mafia,” Palienkar told reporters here.
Palienkar has slammed electronic dance music festivals in the past, claiming they were hubs for drug trade, before finally endorsing a three-day EDM festival in his coastal constituency of Siolim, which includes beach-villages like Anjuna and Vagator and are hubs for drug trade.
Goa Forward, a ruling regional party, which Palienkar is a part of has also defended the minister. “My party president has already said if the activist could be doing this on behalf of somebody in the drug mafia, because of late he has ruffled so many feathers of those in narcotics trafficking," Chief spokesperson of the regional party Trajano D'Mello told The Pioneer.