Blaming Goa festival death on drugs not right: CM

Panaji, Jan 2 (IANS) Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar Friday criticised the opposition for pre-maturely claiming that a drug overdose led to the death of Bollywood designer Isha Mantry at a Goa music festival earlier this week.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a press conference at the sxtate secretariat, Parsekar said: "That poor girl's viscera report or post-mortem report has not even come. And people come to know what happened even before that? Shouting overdose, overdose, overdose is not right."

Mantry landed in Goa along with more than a dozen friends Dec 26.

She was partying at the Vh1 Supersonic EDM event held at Candolim beach, when she fainted Monday night and was declared dead on arrival at a local hospital.

While police, quoting her friends, suggest that Mantry's death could be linked to a combination of medication, alcohol and fatigue, the opposition has alleged that the 27-year-old costume designer, who had worked in the Priyanka Chopra-starrer "Mary Kom", died due to a drug overdose. The opposition also demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation probe.

A post-mortem examination was conducted Dec 31, but the findings have been reserved because chemical analysis of viscera and histopathological examination are awaited.

On Wednesday, however, even before the post-mortem examination was conducted, Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar said that Mantry's death was linked to excess consumption of alcohol and that the girl was "drunk" at the time of her death, thereby giving a clean chit to the music festival organisers.

"The Supersonic event shut down at 10 p.m. The incident happened at 11.30 p.m. What I know is that the girl was drinking alcohol till 11 p.m.," Parulekar said.