On a black Friday Goa woke up to the news of two women killed. While the body of Monica Ghurde, perfume specialist, killed in Sangolda, was found late Wednesday night, 65 year old Shobha Arvind Karmali was done to death between 9 and 10.15 am while she was waiting for her husband to come back with fish. The killer/s walked into the house with the doors ajar, like it is in most Goan homes in the villages, and strangulated her in her living room.
It was as simple as that, a cold murder between 9 and 10 in the morning, when most families are getting ready for the day. Even if the main motive was not to kill and only rob (about Rs 1.25 lakhs and a high end TV was stolen), a woman waiting for her husband to bring home fish met thieves and killers.
These two murders strike at the very fabric of Goan society and challenge a way of life in villages. Till today there are many in Goan villages who have homes that hardly have any security or doors. These homes are always open, willing to take in any stranger, even offering food and drink. When murders like these happen, the basic comfort that people have with their land gets jolted. Waiting for fresh fish is a Goan pastime and completely in sync with an average family’s daily routine. This is the time newspaper are read and chats with other villagers or phone conversations happen. After a murder like this, husbands or family members will not feel safe leaving their homes for even a walk in the village. Shoba Karmali’s alleged killing will reinforce that.
Issues of basic safety in villages have been pending for long and with rivalries and bitter fights emanating between groups of people, issues don’t really get resolved.
What we must all understand such kind of robberies are never, and absolutely never ever resolvable. But society with the help of its people can make it all the more difficult for enemies of the state to kill at will.
Coming to the Monica Ghurde case, she was a part of the rapidly growing page 3 and party circuit, while gaining recognition as a perfume specialist. While her case is more complex, the simple truth is that a person known to her can be a suspect later. But it doesn’t require rocket science to realise the ease at which killers do their job and get away.
Having said all of this, the police may be modernizing their systems and training their personnel, but they are still unable to strengthen grass roots policing. With new residential buildings coming up and changing the profile of the people who live there, the police should use digital media far more effectively to get intelligence information.
There is an over haul of our policing system needed urgently. Above all intelligence gathering and community policing is needed, even more than before so that investigations have local support.
