Court gives him ‘benefit of doubt’
PANJIM, DEC 1
Mahanand Naik got lucky once again when North Goa District and Sessions Court today acquitted him in two murder cases on ‘benefit of doubt.’
Principal Session Judge Nutan Sardessai acquitted the 40-year-old Mahanand of charges of killing Darshana Naik (21) and Sunita Gaonkar (31) in1994 and 2003, respectively.
With this, the alleged killer wins seven acquittals in a row even as the Court sentenced him seven years imprisonment in a separate case of raping his wife’s 23-year-old friend.
In the present acquittals, he was prosecuted for kidnapping and murdering Darshana alias Anusuya somewhere in September 27, 1994 from her home at Tarvallem on the pretext of taking her to visit a patient at Goa Medical College at Bambolim.
But instead, he took her to an isolated location near the GMC where he allegedly strangulated her with her own duppatta and hanged her body to a cashew tree with the help of a nylon rope.
The medical report stated, “Death due to hanging.” This was the first case of the total 18 cases he allegedly committed in the gap of 15 years between 1994 and 2009.
Similarly, he induced another victim Sunita with marriage and took her to a cashew plantation at Surla in Bicholim on January 30, 2003 where he applied the same modus operandi to kill her. The body is till date not located.
In both these cases, he robbed their gold ornaments and sold it to goldsmiths, who were also dragged in the case. The alleged killer was booked under Sections 302 (murder), 392 (robbery), 364 (kidnapping), 201 (destroying evidence) and 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen property) of the Indian Penal Code. Both cases were defended by Adv Mariano D’Souza.
Mahanand now has a string of seven acquittals out of 18 rape, murder and robbery cases cases booked against him. His crime epidemic unfolded one by one after he was called for questioning in the rape charge by the lone surviving victim.
He was then arrested by the Ponda police followed by his confessions.
His modus operandi was to lure young and middle-aged unmarried girls with a bait of marriage where they would fall prey to his convincing talks.
Police said that on a fixed day, he would ask them to wear jewelry to impress his parents. He would, however, take them to secluded places and use their duppatta to strangulate them.
Reacting to the series of acquittals, state representative P P Subhash Desai said since most of them are old matters, in many cases, the bodies of victims were not found holding presumptions that the victim may be alive.
“In many cases, the DNA did not match. Besides, there is not a single eye-witness in any of these cases and almost all complaints were reported in 2009”, he defended.
