I paced the coridoors of the Mapuca Police Station some months ago
waiting for the PI to return. He, I was told, had left on a mission. I then
sighted a women pacing about in the courtyard like a man outside a delivery
room waiting for the results. As I was free, I approached her and asked her
what the matter was. I like to listen to the stories these foreigners have to
tell when I meet them at the Police Station. On arriving in Goa, one told me
that his luggage was missing. One had his passport and the other had lost
his. This is a common tale which rarely has a happy ending as the loot, as I
call it, is rarely traced as there are no clues and the problems of summoning
the bus drivers and assistants is too laborious. Goa, is a hot place as far
as the weather goes and the incentive to solve mysteries does not exist. A
few competent police officers succeed in solving crimes like Insp. Clouseau
or Sherlock Holmes, but this cuts into the booty of the criminals and the
lickbacks of corrupt police officers. The result - transferred to a remote
corner where one rarely hears of this valiant Police Officer. This stops his
promotion and dampens his incentive.
This time, the women (a French women) pacing in the courtyard tells
me that her friend has been arrested for possession of drugs and she is
waiting for the police to release him as the Judge has heard his plea and
ordered him to be released on bail. His passport is impounded.
After some time, he comes out and I speak with him in French and
recognise that he is from Quebec. My French is a mixture of French from
France and Quebec. It helps to communicate with people all over. I know
Quebec and have a good knowledge of their politics. I have spoken with past
politicians like Guy Tardiff, Claude Charon and Rene Levesque. I have
preferred the cultured manners of the only cultured North Americans (Quebec)
to the Anglos.
The released man tells me that his name is Yannick McGuire (a mixture
of Irish and French blood) and I remember Yannick Noah who was a tennis
champion of Cameroonian and French blood. He is surprised by my typical
Quebec expletives. He is friendly. Yannick had left his heating and
ventillation enterprise and had travelled to Goa. He admitted that he liked
to smoke a joint of flagrant weed (marijuana) and had rented a room in
Vagator. The owner had a duplicate key as most do. He is surprised when a
policeman comes to his place and without a warrant (no one has rights in a
Democratic India as no one is Democratic) and searches his place. They find a
small quantity of hashish at first which he admits is his and then come upon
another bigger amount which Yannick swears has been planted in his room and
he suspects is the work of the owner of the house who also has the key to his
room. Three months have passed and he is unable to leave to return to Canada.
His enterprise he told me when I met him lately was defunct, his passport
being in the possession of the police. He has offered to place a bond of 2
lakhs (money his family can raise and send to him) as surety, promising to
return for the final judgement. They have refused and he wonders when he will
gain his freedom. I offer him my house in Salvador do Mundo to stay. He comes
to see it but finds it far from the haunts he prefers in Vagator and the sea.
Poor Yannick, he is stuck in a place he does not want to. He
cannot afford to live in Goa and he does not know how long he will be at the
mercy of the Indian Penal Court. Justice delayed in Goa is justice denied and
the owner of the house has scored points with the police who he has
maliciously assisted to prove to the authorities that they are doing their
job of arresting drug adicts.
Edgar Martins
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