AUGUSTO RODRIGUES:
ES: PORIEM/VALPOI: Five days after a knife attack at the women’s hostel of Goa Institute of Management (GIM), the management of the institute is considering rustication of the alleged accused, Sukanya Sabbaha ni, while police are working to identify a third individu al who could be part of an envious love triangle that has left the campus jolted. Though unproven, this is one of the leads the investi gators are pursuing. Spread over an area of 50 acres, GIM houses over 1,400 students in its 10 hostels. The attack on Umme Aimane, who was pursuing her regular MBA course, has taken the com munity by surprise because of its viciousness.
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Alleged accused 26-year old Sukanya is married, from Hyderabad and had joined GIM to pursue her postgrad uate course in healthcare. “She is an intelligent student who has done her physi otherapy and a BA in psy chology,” claimed one of the professors at the institute, on condition of anonymity. Professors at the insti tute rule out placement rivalry as a possible cause, as both students are from different programmes and hence are unlikely to be competing for similar vacancies. “There have been inci dents where students did not get along because of ri valries related to work after completion of courses. In this case, both were doing different courses,” said an intoxication is broached. The atmosphere on the campus is serene and most students have been advised not to discuss the topic with guests. Students spoken to agreed that both women were financially stable, there by ruling out financial insta bility as a possible cause. However, when asked other professor. Apart from the service gate, there are two other gates to the college — one is the main entrance and the other leads to the hostels. Twenty-four-year-old Libby (name changed on request) from the institute claims that getting alcohol or nar cotics into the campus is im possible and therefore does not blink when the angle of about love and infidelity, the students seemed par ticularly engaged. “Love is in the air and it is bound to happen. We are all human and at an age where emotions play up a lot. The campus rules do not permit boys to visit the ladies’ hos tel, though ladies can go to the gents’ hostel,” said Lib by, as she was joined by her other mates.
Though Sukanya is married and her husband lives in Hy derabad, Harish Madkaikar believes that the officer prob ing the case has been unable to discover any clue apart from ‘personal enmity being the cause’. “Police are now probing the angle of an elusive third pos sible individual being the cause,” confirmed Madkaikar. “Physical intimacy need not be the cause. It could have been a prank played on WhatsApp that led to the outrage. We are checking the call record details of both,” said an of ficer involved in the investigation. “Sukanya and Umme, according to their colleagues, both stayed in Hostel No 2, though in different rooms. They appeared to be close to each other, both spending a lot of time together,” disclosed another colleague who lives in the same hostel block. Of the 10 hostels on the campus, eight are ground-plus two structures. One accommodates around 200 students, while the last one houses around 100 students. Students, according to a warden, are allowed to make coffee in their rooms but are not permitted to cook. “They can bring in fruits and many may be carrying a knife to cut their fruit. There is nothing wrong with that, but the knife used in the attack looked out of place and therefore raises the possibility of it being a pre-planned attack,” admitted the warden. “Anything can happen with WhatsApp nowadays. Harm less messages can be linked and lead to various assump tions, and it could be one such assumption that forced the alleged accused to take such an unusual step,” agreed a senior management member of GIM. “The accused is on remand till Saturday,” disclosed North Goa SP Harish Madkaikar. “Both the families are down in Goa and the victim has been shifted from Goa Medical Col lege (GMC) to a private hospital,” stated Madkaikar. The wounds on the victim’s neck, according to a doctor treating her at GMC, were not very serious. “One of her fin gers was badly injured,” declared the doctor on condition of anonymity. “At first,” recounts one of their colleagues, “we heard some screams, but when we realised what had happened, it shook us all. Everything happened within minutes. There was blood all around.” As evening begins to cloud the campus, worry hangs in the air. The victim and her family are back at the campus. There are some who are not too happy that the accused is going to be rusticated, while others, unhappy that their cam pus has, for the first time, made news for the wrong reasons.
prehension that some stall vendors and others who may be material witnesses could be reluctant to come forward due to fear, or could be influenced, threatened or induced if Pereira was granted anticipatory bail. The police also cited five cases or proceedings found during verification of Pereira’s antecedents, includ-ing cases registered at Cuncolim and Colva police stations and proceedings under the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, BNS and BNSS. Police further informed the court about a complaint lodged by Gerson Gomes’ son, Jeroslav Gomes, alleging that Pereira had gone near the complainant’s residence late at night and threatened to kill him if he pursued the case. Po lice said their staff immediately visited the residence, but Pereira was not found there. Gomes, through advocate Ohm Stanley, filed an interven tion application in the anticipatory bail proceedings. The application states that Gomes is the complainant and seeks to place before the court facts relevant to the application which may not have been known to or submitted by the prosecution. The application also annexes earlier com plaints filed by Gomes against Pereira. Stanley, during his submissions, argued that the alleged as sault was not merely an attack on Gomes personally, but also an attack on a public servant and the authority vested in him by the State. He questioned what message would be sent if people could attack public officials over grievances and escape arrest. He also referred to earlier incidents involving Pereira, including a July complaint concerning alleged abusive be haviour, intimidation, defamation and unauthorised live video recording from the panchayat office, and an August 28 incident in which Pereira allegedly attempted to assault the sarpanch with a wooden piece of a nameplate. Stanley also raised questions over the manner in which Pereira appeared before the police after being served a no tice under Section 35(3) of the BNSS. He said Pereira had been asked to appear at 4 pm, but came earlier, at around 11.30 am, gave his statement and left. Since the alleged assault, protests have been held at the Chinchinim panchayat office and the Cuncolim police sta tion, demanding Pereira’s arrest. The police urged the court to reject the anticipatory bail plea, while Stanley also opposed blanket protec-tion from arrest. The matter was heard by the Additional Ses sions Judge, Margao, with the order sched-uled to be pro nounced on Friday at 10 am.
