Team Herald
PANJIM: Hours after arresting a person for sexually assaulting and killing a young woman at the isolated helipad in Old Goa, a special team of Goa Police formed to crack this ‘blind case’ found that he had offered the victim a lift to her residence on pretext of which he subjected her to the crime.
As many as 150 persons were interrogated in a span of 48 hours after which the team zeroed in on Manjunath Dodamani, a 23-year-old high school dropout.
“The accused was known to the deceased. He gave her a lift at about 10.30 pm on Wednesday and on the pretext of dropping her to her residence, he took her to an isolated spot at the helipad area. The crime scene is close to the vicinity of the victim’s house. After sexually assaulting her, he compressed her mouth and neck resulting in her death. He abandoned the body and left from the spot to his residence,” a senior police officer said.
A 15-member team consisting of the superintendents of police of the North District and Crime Branch, deputy superintendents of police of Crime Branch, and Panjim and Mapusa police stations and others was formed after the autopsy report on Thursday ascertained the 24-year-old was raped and then murdered.
“The entire area was searched for clues; our local sources were activated and all available CCTV footages were viewed and analysed in search of the accused. Around 150 persons were also interrogated,” the officer said.
Dodamani, who is among five siblings living in Goa with his parents, is assisting his father in JCB business. Born in Goa, his family migrated to the coastal State around 35 years ago from Belgaum, Karnataka. His mother owns a kiosk selling soft drinks and snacks at Dhauji.
The deceased was also living in Old Goa and was recently married. To earn a living, she sold candles at Old Goa Church. Herald, in its Sunday edition had mentioned about the arrest of the accused.
DIG Paramaditya, who held a press conference to announce that the mysterious murder case has been solved, said they suspect that the accused had a one-sided attraction towards the victim. “Apprehending she would disclose the incident, he strangulated her,” he said.
