Alleging harassment, owner sells Tito's, Goa's iconic club

Few can forget the Tito’s experience in Goa.

Ricardo D’Souza, the owner of the iconic club, has decided to sell his club, alleging harassment by local authorities.

D’Souza, in a social media post, announced that he sold his ‘entire business’ in Goa for what he called as “adequate compensation” while declining to reveal the buyers’ identity. He used to run the club with his brother David D’Souza.

“It is with sadness but with anger that we have sold our entire business in Goa. I personally have suffered the least as I was compensated adequately and even my future generations won’t have to work,” wrote Ricardo D’Souza.

D’Souza, while alleging harassment by local authorities, named authorities like ‘police, Planning and Development Authority (PDA), Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ), NGOs, panchayats and Sarpanchs, Block Development Officer (BDO), Deputy Collectors, etc’.

D’Souza neither named any individual nor did he specify what kind of harassment he was facing.

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Sean Martins, the village’s sarpanch, said that no records of complaints, against the establishment, over CRZ violations had been recorded in the recent past with the last complaint dating back to 2019.

D’Souza, however, thanked Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant, saying that he was very grateful as well as to ‘the IAS officers, ex-staff, present staff, our neighbours, all my friends and family and the common people of Goa who all contributed to this great Brand called Tito’s.

This club emerged as a popular place in the early 70s as a beach shack. During that time, Goa’s tourism was nowhere near as thriving as now, and over the years, Tito’s grew to become the most popular and well-known must-visit place for several tourists.

The club, however, faced complaints of expanding in violation of CRZ regulations and was even issued a notice asking to explain alleged illegalities.