Its one year since Canacona woke up on March 14th last year to the gruesome sexual assault and murder of Irish-British backpacker Danielle McLaughlin in an open field close to the world famous Palolem beach. This, on the eve of Holi an Indian festival of colours which signifies the victory of good over evil but on that fateful night bad won over good. The backpacker was on holiday who was on a holiday in India since February that year.
The body of Danielle McLaughlin an Irish-British dual national was discovered by a local farmer Premanand Komarpant while he was on a visit to his farm located about 200 mts from the main road connecting Palolem beach to another world famous beach at Agonda village in the early morning hours of 14th March last year. He immediately contacted the local police station and lead by Filomena Costa the in charge of the CanaCona police station they arrived on the scene and cordoned off the area.
In an hours’ time SP Crime Branch Umesh Gaonkar, DySP Sammy Tavares and PI Uttam Raut Desai arrived at the scene. After conducting the panchanama, the body was transferred to Hospicio hospital for a post mortem. They conducted the autopsy and concluded that there was sexual assault and the cause of death as due to constriction of the neck on the intervening night of 13th and 14th march.
Police started the investigation in right earnest and immediately four suspected men from around the locality where rounded up and brought to the police station for interrogation. Later with available information and cctv footage retrieved from a local restaurant at Ovrem beach it was revealed that McLaughlin was in the company of a local history sheeter Vikat Bhagat who she had befriended during her previous visit to Goa and on that fateful day both had partied with more local friends joining in to celebrate the holi festival at a popular joint at the extreme end of Palolem beach till late night.
After connecting the available information police arrested Vikat Bhagat as a prime accused within twenty four hours of the gruesome murder.
Later the mortal remains of Danielle were flown to her home town Buncrana, county Donegal in Ireland where a second post mortem reaffirmed brain damage and strangulation as the cause of her death.
Her report “among other things” which confirmed the cause of Ms McLaughlin’s death as being in line with the first post-mortem examination done in Goa.
The funeral services of Danielle McLaughlin who was the eldest amongst five sisters Joleen, Traigheannach, Seanne and Sky Marie were held at St Mary’s Church, Buncrana, Donegal where she was described by Fr. Francis Bradley as “a cherished grand-daughter, a thoughtful sister, a loyal friend, a free spirit, a remarkable classmate, a gentle neighbour” who had suffered a sudden and callous death and was disarmingly kind and forgiving.
Controversy arose when during an hearing on May 4 in the court of Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) Canacona, Vikat Bhagat complained to the judge that the jail authorities were not allowing him to post a letter written by him to his younger sister to which the judge immediately instructed the jail authorities accordingly and asked Vikat’s sister to personally collect the same. After much confrontation with the jail authorities, she received a 29 pages letter by registered post written in konkani devnagri script explaining in detail the events that happened on the previous day and on the day Dannielle’s lifeless body was discovered in which he denied his role in the sexual assault.
In the letter Vikat wrote that “Danielle was with him on that fateful night and alleged that his three friends came to the crime scene with the headlights of their two-wheelers switched off. After she turned down the demands for the sexual favours, they sexually abused her and later killed her. He also wrote that when he resisted, he was also punched in the stomach”.
Herald spoke to a cross section of people related to the tourism business in the coastal areas of Canacona but all including the tourists refused to get drawn into the conversation and seemed like they did not want to rub the cops the wrong way.
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Charges Framed
Exactly on the first anniversary of the discovery of Irish national Danielle McLaughin’s dead body at Palolem, Additional Sessions Judge II Sayonara Teles Laad today ordered the framing of charges against Vikat Bhagat who is accused of raping and murdering her.
The Judge ordered framing of charges under Sections 302, 376, 394 and 201 of the Indian Penal Code for murder, rape, robbery and attempting to destroy evidence and the matter is now fixed for 26th March for explaining the charges to the accused.
Even before the trial commenced the defense filed an application demanding a clone copy of the hard disk containing the CCTV coverage that the prosecution was relying upon. Providing a copy of that copy took some time as the prosecution had to get the copy from the Forensic Science Laboratory Pune.
There after the court had to decide upon the application filed by Andrea Brannigan mother of Danielle McLaughin through her Advocate Vikram Verma to be made a party to the case to assist the prosecution in the matter. Judge Sayanora allowed this application and Adv Vikram Verma now attends the matter.
Besides, the court also had to decide upon Vikat’s father Surendra Bhagat’s application to release his Activa scooter that was seized by the police as it was used to commit the murder. While his advocate S Dessai argued that there was no reason for the police to have possession of the scooter as it belonged to him and not the accused, Vikat’s advocate argued that the scooter would deteriorate if not used and that it was a mere machine and hence gave no objection to its release.
