MARGAO: The Margao Town Police on Monday arrested a 68-year-old Babli Fernandes, a native of Andheri, Mumbai for allegedly setting 13 two-wheelers on fire at two different places at Khareband on June 15.
He has been remanded to two days judicial custody.
PI Kapil Nayak informed that the CCTV footage helped the police to identify the culprit, who besides confessing to the crime, also gave certain information that was known only to the police thereby establishing that he was the one who set the two-wheelers on fire.
Kapil disclosed that during interrogation Babli said he gets pleasure in seeing a bike burning and that was the reason why he set them on fire. He apparently pulled out the petrol pipe of a bike and set the two-wheelers on fire with a match box before fleeing.
While police are investigating whether he was involved in setting parked motorcycles and a car on fire at Aquem about a month and a half ago, it has been established that Babli was earlier arrested in 2010 for setting a chicken shop on fire near Cine Lata.
Following his arrest when Babli was sent for a medical checkup at Hospicio, police were advised to take him to Institute of Psychiatry and Human Behaviour and hence the Judicial Magistrate First Class has ordered that he be taken in judicial custody and later to IPHB.
However, after examining him, IPHB certified that he is mentally fit and therefore he is now in judicial custody for two days. In the 2010 case too, he had claimed to be medically unfit, said PI Kapil.
