TEAM HERALD
bureau@herald-goa.com
CANACONA: Hundreds of residents, including scores of fisherwomen, shut down the lone municipal fish market at Chaudi on Saturday morning and staged a protest near the Dy Collector’s office at Chaudi-Canacona.
The agitators also marched to the Canacona police station to demand the immediate arrest of the alleged culprits.
Blaming the police for their lethargic attitude in reacting to the rape and murder of 50-year-old Vijaya S Pagi of Rajbag-Tarir, a large number of angry residents from Canacona also accused the police of failing to keep an effective surveillance on the isolated road at Mastimoll, the scene of the brutal crime.
Many fisherwomen, unhappy with an assurance by DySP Goltekar that the culprits would be arrested within eight days, were heard shouting they would not leave the police station unless culprits are arrested.
SP Shekhar Prabhudessai then sought to pacify the agitators requesting some members of the public to join and assist the police and to help trace any links at the site of the crime that could lead to the culprits.
At one point, Prabhudessai was heard patiently hearing the suggestions from the agitators that police should recover the mobile handset of the murdered woman to lay their hands on the culprits.
In the meanwhile, police rounded up hundreds of migrant workers either known to live, or move in the locality, but had reportedly let them off finding no clues or link them to the gruesome rape and murder.
Police sources informed Herald that the medical examination on the body has confirmed rape, while the death was caused by strangulation and smothering.
As part of their investigation, police also visited the Canacona ITI Campus and sought the attendance of students for Friday and also interacted with some persons.
Residents also accused the police of doing nothing to look out for the murderer and claimed that senior police officials made their presence felt at the crime site with a dog squad only after 8 pm.
“Today, this heinous daylight rape and murder took place just across in an isolated portion of a road. Tomorrow, it will happen amidst residences and it can continue unabated thereafter, if police failed to catch the culprits,” shouted Kindlem Councillor and CMC Ex-Chairperson Ramakanth Naik Gaonkar.
One fisherwoman complained that they had in the past demanded police surveillance around isolated roads, but added that Canacona police had failed to respond to their requests.
Interestingly, former Canacona MLA Vijay Poi Khot speculated that the possibility of more than one person involved in the murder could not be ruled out, given the strong physical build of the murdered woman.
Police was unable to get a breakthrough in the case and the SP Prabhudessai and DySP Goltekar were holed up in the Canacona police station discussing various angles into the investigations.
