Team Herald
PANJIM: Evender Rodrigues, the brainchild behind the Swapnil Walke’s murder plan, will be investigated in a cheating case reported with Anjuna police in February 2020. The accused allegedly cheated his sexagenarian aunt of Rs 1.5 crore in October 2019, along with Omkar Patil – coincidentally also an accused in the Margao murder case.
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Rita Rodrigues e Fernandes had complained to the local police that on pretext of helping her keep her ornaments safe in a bank locker, her nephew Evender and his accomplice stole away her “ancestral gold ornaments.”
She has estimated the value of stolen property to be worth Rs 1.5 crore approx.
While Omkar was arrested, remanded to police and judicial custody, and bailed out thereafter; Evender was not found. Now with Evender’s arrest in the Walke murder case, the Anjuna police are preparing to move the court seeking his custody in the cheating case.
“The police had recovered only 2 bangles and one bracelet following Omkar’s confession. Evender’s custody is crucial to recover the remaining stolen ornaments, as he is also the main accused in the FIR,” a source said.
Rita, in her complaint had said that Evender pretended to help her open a bank account at Patto-Panjim so that she could keep her ornaments in the bank locker. However, he reportedly lied to her that he deposited her jewellery in the locker as he never handed over the locker key or any details despite repeated inquiries.
“Evender and Omkar had cheated me with false promise of keeping my gold ornaments in bank locker , Panjim branch and did not keep the same in bank locker and did not return the same to me and now it appears to me that they both had siphoned the same and cheated me,” reads an extract of her complaint letter, copy of which is in possession of Herald.
The elderly woman has cited that Evender would call Omkar every time they visited the bank including at her Anjuna residence. “He tried to win the victim’s confidence by taking her to the bank to open an account so that she gets a locker to keep her ornaments. Although she was careful to keep her possession safe, on their second visit to the bank, Evender did not allow her to come inside the bank. Instead he asked her to hand over the box containing the jewellery. He asked her to trust him. By this time, Omkar had reached the bank. They went inside and returned after five minutes, claiming the ornaments were kept in the locker. When the woman asked for the locker key, Evender refused to give it stating why she needs the key and that he will keep it safe with him,” an official said.
It was when Rita asked her nephew to bring back the jewellery from the bank in December 2019, Evender began dodging her. After failing to get her possession back, the victim lodged a complaint seeking action.
