Chief Minister Pramod Sawant informed the house that the Siddhi
Naik case is still under investigation and it would not be appropriate to
furnish papers relevant to the ongoing investigation. He informed in his reply
saying “At this stage Investigation of the case is in progress and the
disclosure of information could hamper the investigation.”
Goa Police is investigating the case on merit, hence no need to
hand over the investigation to CBI, CM in his reply.
The Crime Branch of Goa Police has filed a closure report in the
case of the death of 19-year-old Siddhi Naik whose body had washed ashore on
the Calangute Beach on August 12, 2021.
Siddhi’s death had rocked the State after her semi-nude body was
found under mysterious circumstances at the Calangute beach. People across the
State had also staged agitation demanding justice for the teenager.
After initially ruling out foul play into the teenager's death, on
December 28, 2021, the Calangute Police had finally registered a case of murder
against unidentified person/s. Later the case was transferred to the Crime Branch
for further investigations.
The postmortem examination report had certified that the death was
due to asphyxia as a result of drowning.
The police had recorded statements of more than 40 witnesses in
the case. Nearly after 4 and half months of the incident, Calangute police had
finally registered the mysterious death of the 19-year-old Siddhi Naik as
murder case. But in last year’s October session Chief Minister Dr. Pramod
Sawant had said that the Goa police were inquiring on the basis of merit of the
Siddhi Naik death case and hence there was no need to hand over the
investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Sawant had said that further investigation was in progress in all
aspects in order to unearth the truth in this case.
The girl's body was discovered on a busy stretch of Calangute
beach and her belongings could not be traced anywhere.