‘Action being taken against Curlies to divert attention’

Mapusa: Senior counsel Surendra Desai, representing Edwin Nunes who runs and manages Curlies, told the court that police have not taken any action against the hotel at Vagator where drugs were sold to the murder accused in TikTok star Sonali Phogat’s case, as the “hotel belongs to a friend of a noted politician.”
Desai also said that action is being taken against Curlies to divert public attention.
Prima facie there is no evidence that a drug trade is being carried out at Curlies, said Desai, who was arguing on the bail application filed by Nunes.
After hearing arguments, additional sessions judge Sharmila Patil will pronounce the order on Nunes’ bail application and police remand application on Wednesday.
During the argument, Desai said that the Haryana politician’s death was unfortunate. He said that Phogat, who used to stay in Haryana, moved to Delhi and started staying with the accused, Sukhwinder Singh. “They decided to come to Goa, dance and have drugs,” Desai said.
“The drugs were purchased in the (Vagator) hotel and, till date, police have not touched the hotel. How biased is this investigation?”
He said that at 4.30pm on August 22, Sonali told Singh to procure drugs and he contacted the room boy. Desai also said that it is on record that they consumed drugs in the hotel.
“Curlies has completed more than 40 years and no one has been caught with drugs there, except for one incident in 2017,” he said.
Arguing further on behalf of the accused, Desai said that people were snorting drugs outside and coming to Curlies and “I am looked at as a drug house”.
The senior counsel said that the accused in the murder case picked up the drugs and got it to the restaurant and kept it in the water tank in the ladies toilet.
“This establishes that this drug does not belong to Curlies,” Desai said.
The senior counsel said that Nunes is not connected with drug trafficking and he has “cooperated with the investigation”.
Further arguing that “prima facie there is no evidence of any crime” against Nunes, Desai said that he has been “just picked up because there is a hue and cry over Phogat’s death”.
This is misuse and abuse of police power on the instance of politicians, he said.
The public prosecutor said that the investigation conducted so far shows that Nunes is in charge of Curlies operations. “His omission to stop the activity on his premises has led to a death,” the public prosecutor said.
Police said that Nunes, who has knowledge of drug activities going on in his shack, and has been previously arrested in an NDPS case, deliberately allowed the same in his shack, which reveals that the accused has connections with drug activities.