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Goa cracks down on nightlife
19/03/2008 16:16 - (SA)
Panaji - Police in India's resort state of Goa, where a British teen was murdered last month, have begun shutting down beach parties and bars at midnight, officials said on Wednesday.
Officials ordered the crackdown on Goa's party culture after police said 15-year-old Scarlett Keeling was raped and left for dead by two men after she consumed a cocktail of illegal drugs at a beach cafe where she was hanging out late into the night.
Goan police this month arrested Samson D'Souza, 29, a bartender at the cafe, and alleged drug dealer Placido Carvalho for Keeling's murder.
"We are not allowing anything beyond midnight. These are strict orders to the police," Goa state official JP Singh told AFP on Wednesday.
Bar owners complained
Special police teams were roaming the beaches this week to catch bar owners violating the ban and to round up suspicious characters.
About 100 people have been detained so far, officials said.
Bar owners complained about the new restrictions, saying they would tarnish Goa's image as a free-wheeling oasis in India, but said they would comply.
"This will affect our business but we have no option," said Alovino Gomes, who runs a cafe on the popular Calangute beach that is popular with foreigners, who flock to Goa for beach dance parties that run until dawn.
"We don't entertain drugs here. The business we do is sober," added Gomes, pointing to a sign in his establishment that read "No Drugs please!"
Shops with licences to serve liquor beyond midnight are also being ordered to close early.
The Lui cafe, the bar where Keeling was last seen a few hours before her bruised body was found on Goa's Anjuna beach on February 18, has been shut down, officials confirmed.
- AFP
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