SUNDAY, APRIL 28, 2024
Team Herald
MARGAO: The Crime Branch team led by the Police Inspector C L Patil on Thursday brought Mustafa Shaikh, the accused in Swapnil Walke murder case to the important sites related to the crime.
As the police custody of the three accused namely Mustafa Shaikh, Omkar Patil and Evander Rodrigues ended on Thursday, the Crime Branch team visited the spots, which the accused traversed before and after the crime.
The team has found out that the trio had done a recce of the area and had been keeping close watch on the shop before the robbery bid. The accused had reportedly kept a vehicle in a deserted lane near a showroom in Pajifond, which they used to flee from the spot on climbing down. They had also parked the four-wheeler used in the commission of crime before climbing up from the same deserted lane.
The team took the accused to the spots, got the description of how they executed the act and also took photos. PI Patil said, "The custody of the three accused ends tomorrow. Today, we have inspected the sites, which were used by the accused. They had done recce of the areas earlier too".
Crime Branch sources said Swapnil would have survived the bullet injury but his resistance resulted in the accused pulling out the knife and stabbing him multiple times.
Sources said except for Edson Gonsalves, who was later released, all three have a background of executing robberies. In Margao too they wanted to loot other jewellery shops.
They said the accused cancelled their plans to loot two shops as one of them had security personnel while the other had several staff. However, they chose Krishni Jewellers since it had no guard and staff.
The investigation points out that this is a failed robbery attempt.
