PANAJI/NEW DELHI: Highly-placed intelligence sources suspect that the firing on Majestic Pride casino director Srinivas Nayak at Porvorim in North Goa, could be the handiwork of an international gang targeting the casinos and other big businesses in Goa for extortion.
Without naming the gang, the sources claimed that crime syndicates have turned their eyes on businessmen in Goa for extortion-related activity due to the opulence and open show-off of wealth and glamour at clubs and entertainment venues as well as the reported daily cash collections at the counters.
According to the Times of India, two unidentified persons opened fire at Srinivas Nayak, director of Majestic Pride Group, which operates offshore and onshore casinos in Goa.
The incident occurred around 8.45 pm on Friday at Majestic Hotel in Porvorim, North Goa, but Nayak was not injured.
Police said the suspects were already waiting outside the hotel when Nayak left his office located on the premises. Nayak said he was attacked as he was about to get into his car to go home. “When they attacked me, I immediately stepped back into the hotel and the hotel security retaliated. Nothing happened to me,” he told TOI.
Apparently, the assailants identified Nayak successfully and fired at him when he came out.
Reports claim that about six rounds were fired in Nayak’s direction as he stepped out of lavish premises. Security guards fired three rounds, as a result of which the assailants fled. They crossed the road on foot and fled on a motorbike.
Porvorim PI Tukaram Chavan was quoted by TOI as saying that after Nayak entered the hotel lobby, the assailants fired three rounds.
Security personnel returned fire, following which the attackers fled. An FIR has been registered involving section related to attempt to murder. Police teams have been formed to trace and arrest the suspects who were caught on the CCTV cameras of the hotel.
The suspects are likely to be from outside Goa and maybe have fled the state immediately after the incident, sources said.