Panaji, Dec 21 (IANS) A police officer accused of having links with Goa's drug mafia was awarded the chief minister's gold medal on Goa liberation day Sunday, prompting political parties to accuse the government of shielding drug dealers.

Speaking to IANS Tuesday, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) general secretary Govind Parvatkar said the act of awarding deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Chandrakant Salgaonkar spoke volumes of "the Congress-led coalition government's character".

"It is a shame for Goa that the chief minister's police gold medal for meritorious work is given to an officer who has been helping the drug mafia. This shows who really is running the government," Parvatkar said.

Salgaonkar has been accused by both the opposition and ruling party office bearers of having links with Israeli drug dealers.

The senior crime branch officer has been investigating the case involving Israeli drug dealer Yaniv Benaim alias Atala, who has been linked to state home minister Ravi Naik's son Roy.

The leader of opposition Manohar Parrikar has demanded that Salgaonkar be probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Congress' student wing National Students Union of India (NSUI) too has accused the officer of being part of Goa's notorious drug trade industry.

"This award is nothing but quid pro quo. The officer is being rewarded not for serving the government, but the ministers in government," NSUI president Sunil Kavthankar said.

Salgaonkar's investigation into the state's drug mafia had earlier invited severe strictures from the Panaji bench of the Bombay high court.

The court observed that the police were shielding the political patrons of the drug trade "because more skeletons may tumble out from the cupboard of the police-drug dealers nexus... Is there anyone in Goa, not connected with the police, drug dealers and politicians, who does not believe that this nexus exists only because of political patronage?"

Justice N.A. Britto, in his order issued in June this year, had also said that the investigating team led by Salgaonkar was unwilling to get to the bottom of the police- politician-drug dealer nexus, in which seven policemen have already been arrested.

However, a police spokesperson said the decision to award an officer was entirely up to the chief minister's office.

"As a department, we receive applications from prospective candidates, which are then forwarded to the chief minister's office. The CMO decides the winners from the list," a senior police officer said.