TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: Even as the state is yet to recover from the horrific double murder case, medical reports have confirmed that the six-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by the accused.
It has come to light that one of the two accused Ramesh Bhagwe had sexually abused the minor before trying to strangle her in the moving car on Monday night.
The police have invoked Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012 in the FIR against him, who along with Osban Fernandes is undergoing custodial interrogation for murder, attempted murder and destruction of evidence.
The six-year-old girl and her four-year-old brother were strangulated and after assuming that both were dead, the accused
threw them in a deep ravine at Anmod Ghat.
The children luckily survived, while their parents Shivaji Nayak and Sujata were murdered.
The accused executed the well plotted crime from May 10 to 13 (Friday to Monday).
“Bhagwe confessed that he sexually abused the minor girl by removing her clothes in the presence of Fernandes after which both the accused strangulated and threw Sujata out of the car in the valley,” said the source.
The girl was thrown two kilometres away from the Karnataka border. The murder was exposed after the girl was found along the roadside in the Ghat section by a good samaritan, who informed the police.
Both victims were working as labourers with Fernandes at Merces.
The labourers, who apparently beat up Shivaji at the behest of the jailed accused, will also be tracked as police say they are likely to be booked for abetting Shivaji’s killing. However, they are said to have fled the state.
Police on Friday recovered a knife, rope and clothes of Sujata.
Senior police officials said that recoveries were made at the instance of both the accused.
“The kitchen knife, rope and clothes of the victims have been recovered. These will be sent to the forensic laboratory for examination,” said police.
Old Goa and Collem police, jointly investigating the murder, have located a shop in Panjim from where the accused duo purchased the knife.
