The father of the Nachinola girl Siddhi Naik, found dead on Calangute beach two weeks ago, has kept on visiting the Calangute police station for justice. In the heat of the moment and with his perceived facts around his daughter’s brutal death not totally clear, a distraught father had stated that his daughter was depressed and indicated that she may have ended her life.
This was exactly the kind of a statement that the Goa Police wanted to put a swift end to the investigations and close this as a suicide case.
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His daughter died but his will to give her justice did not
The father has officially asked for the post mortem report of his daughter which has still not been handed to him. Meanwhile, Herald has gone behind the scenes and the wall of silence and diversion that the North Goa Police has attempted and established these facts beyond doubts
This is how the investigations went for a toss
a) The Goa Police assumed that the Department of Forensic Medicine, which carried out the autopsy on the victim, would preserve the viscera. On its part, it did not take the additional precaution of insisting on the preservation of the viscera. It continues to maintain that they were almost sure that the team conducting the post mortem would preserve the viscera for analysis to determine if there were drugs or poison in the body and reach a decision on whether the death was homicidal (a murder). But it did nothing on its part to ensure it.
b) The Forensics Department maintains that they did not see any difference in the cause of death in the police death report and the body and ruled out the murder angle. However, this decision could have been arrived at in haste. In any case, viscera preservation should have been definitely advised.
c) With public pressure mounting and the father’s refusal to accept this just as a suicide case, the police at the highest level of the DGP, has advised a rethink. Sensing the DGP’s mind, it was then that the North Goa police wrote a roundabout letter to the Forensics Department, (18/08) without quite mentioning the Siddhi Naik case and asked what protocols are followed regarding viscera preservation in a drowning case. The Forensics Department in the reply (21/08) to that letter also played safe by mentioning in one of the points that a viscera is preserved when the Investigating Officer specifically asked for it.
The North Goa Police then started feeding stories of different statements and “information” about the victim girl’s depression after getting COVID and the number of Google searches she did on the disease and its effects.
What was really happening? Both Forensics and the North Goa police were trying not to let the blame for a bad decision come on them. And that is the reason why it avoided opening up to any section of the media which started probing seriously and asking tough questions. Who suffered? Heartbroken parents of the victim.
What needs to be done immediately if the Goa Police wants to give justice to the parents of the victim and repair its unprofessional handling of the case
DO THIS NOW
– The DGP should advise the North Goa SP to write to the Forensics Department for an expert opinion and a review of the post mortem findings – based on a relook at the semi-nude photo of the victim girl and closely examine all her body features. Top-level forensic experts will be able to give a more thought out and arguably more accurate opinion than what the department has given so far.
– The North Goa SP should also be guided to register this as a murder case and ask the Calangute PI to proceed accordingly. There cannot be ANY COMPROMISE on this. That can happen if by law it asks the victim’s father if he is willing to submit an amended statement that he suspects his child was murdered, based on a better assessment of the situation, since he himself has been on the ground.
– Keep egos aside because egos cannot get in the way of Justice. In addition, the Goa Police are set to face a huge embarrassment if the family and spirited citizens take the issue to court on grounds of shoddy investigation and ask for a CBI probe. And just like the Scarlett case, it would show the Goa Police’s professionalism in an extremely poor light.
There have been two deaths in this case. The death of Siddhi Naik. And the death of justice. Perhaps a rethink can save at least one of the deaths – that of Justice. Goa hopes that the head of the force, the DGP will intervene to undo the damage that has already been caused.
