TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: Even as the Collem Police is expected to file a preliminary chargesheet in the Merces couple murder case, investigation by Old Goa police has hit a dead end as two labourers suspected to have beaten the husband, are still at large. Nevertheless the latter is confident of filing its indictment in the case in two weeks time.
Two persons – contractor Osban Fernandes and co-worker Ramesh Bhagwe are in police custody for allegedly murdering daily wage workers Shivaji Nayak and his wife Sujata, and attempting to murder their two children, aged 6 and 4 years, in May.
Old Goa police is still investigating Shivaji’s killing while the Collem police are probing the murder of Sujata and attempted murder on their children since the crime was committed at Anmod Ghat, located in Collem police station jurisdiction.
The two unidentified labourers were among a group of other co-workers who had assaulted Shivaji at the behest of the two jailed accused, little away from their rented huts at Merces. The attackers had later tried to resuscitate Shivaji but he was already dead and was buried the next day. The labourers fled from Goa, hours after the incident.
“Nobody knows from where the labourers hailed, making it difficult to trace their whereabouts. The accused contractor who gave them work, did not maintain their residential details,” Old Goa Police Inspector Krishna Sinhari told Herald.
However, he said, a indictment will be filed within the next two weeks. “Our efforts to identify and trace the accused labourers will continue even after filing the charge sheet. Once they are found, another charge sheet will be filed,” he said.
While the murder trial will take place in the District and Sessions Court, the attempted murder case will simultaneously run before the Children’s Court.
