Boyfriend arrested on charges of murder
TEAM HERALD
CALANGUTE/PANJIM: A 24-year-old Czech woman was found murdered in a guest house at Umtta Vaddo, Calangute on Tuesday night, while her Czech boyfriend, who claimed to have been abducted before falling unconscious and abandoned at Tivim, has been arrested on charges of murder.
Calangute police said the murder came to light when the boyfriend, Pavel Neuhaul, was found unconscious in Cansa-Tivim at about 8 pm on Tuesday and was later shifted to the Mapusa district hospital.The hospital staff then noticed some injury marks on his wrist and alerted the Mapusa police at about 8.35 pm.
When questioned about his place of residence, Neuhaul claimed that he was roughed up by two unknown persons while he was in the kitchen of a guest room which he had rented along with his girlfriend, Marketa Horka, at Calangute and was taken in a car to an undisclosed destination.
He then led a Mapusa police team to the Calangute guest room which was locked from the outside.
The police interrogated neighbours and then contacted the owner, who said that he did not have the key of the lock on the door. The police took Neuhaul back to Mapusa and registered an offence, before transferring the case to the Calangute police station at around 10.15 pm as the incident had taken place in Calangute.
The Calangute police took over the investigations and broke open the door, only to find Horka lying in a pool of blood. The body was lying on the floor with stab injuries on her chest and a cut on the neck. The Calangute police conducted the inquest and sent the body for a post-mortem to the GMC, Bambolim.
The owner of the guest house told police that the couple had checked in on Sunday for a week’s stay. They had arrived in Goa from Mumbai by an interstate luxury bus. Locals in the neighbhourhood claim they were not aware of any incident nor did they see anyone being abducted and taken in a car. The locals were also unaware of any fight.
The articles in the guest room were left untouched, leading the Calangute police to rule out robbery as a motive for the murder. Calangute police also did not find any clues that could corroborate Neuhaul’s claim that he was attacked by two persons in the guest house.
Police have arrested Neuhaul on charges of murder under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and are investigating the case. Senior police officials, including Superintendent of Police (North) Vishram Borkar, Deputy Superintendent of Police N C Raikar and Police Inspector Nilesh Rane visited the site and took stock of investigations into the murder.
Meanwhile, addressing a late evening press conference at the police headquarters, Borkar said Neuhaul had killed the woman between 3 to 4 am on Tuesday and hired a rickshaw to go to Tivim at about 8am.
“He stepped out of the guest house at about 8 am,” he said. “The accused, in his confession statement told the police that he asked the rickshaw driver to drop him to the Mapusa railway station. He was dropped at Tivim railway station.”
In his statement before the Calangute police, the rickshaw driver said he could not make out the injuries on Neuhaul as he was wearing a long sleeve shirt. “The driver had inquired about the luggage to which Neuhaul said he had none,” the officer said.
Borkar said the FRRO (Foreigners Regional Registration Office) has informed the Czech embassy in Delhi about the incident.
Sources said that Neuhaul had attempted to destroy evidence by cleaning the blood stains in the room where his girlfriend was found dead. The knife, with which he fatally stabbed the victim and inflicted injuries on himself, has not been recovered still.
The two friends, accompanied by three other Czechs, had visited Goa on August 2, 2012 and stayed here for about a month.
The case at Mapusa police station will be investigated as ‘action after commissioning of crime’ as Neuhaul had tried to mislead the police by filing a false complaint of kidnapping. He was sent for forensic medical examination late on Wednesday night and will be produced for remand on Thursday. Borkar said the motive of the killing will be ascertained only during his custodial interrogation.
