MARGAO: As the Margao police and South Goa heads have remained less than communicative on the murder case evidences reveal that the jeweller Swapnil Walke was shot at instantly, by one of the assailants and then in a scuffle, stabbed multiple times on his neck and abdomen. The involvement of 4 persons in the commission of crime has also been revealed.
By Wednesday midnight, the CCTV evidence around the crime scene gave an idea to the police, on where to go to search for the assailants. On Wednesday evening, several teams of police set out all over the Grace church and Pajifond areas, to check from where the accused made a run from. The CCTV footages of shops in the line of PNG Jewellers on the way towards Pajifond, showed one of the assailants entering a road leading to the back of the building. He was wearing a raincoat while he entered and left without it when he exited.
At night, as the police cleared all the vehicles nearby and checked on other parked vehicles, a Mahindra Bolero car parked just metres away from Swapnil Walke’s shop was found to be the vehicle, which the assailants used. Upon further inquiry, it was learnt that there was a complaint registered at the Panjim Police station of the robbery of this very vehicle, on Saturday. Police have informed that this vehicle was robbed by Omkar Patil and Mustafa Shaikh, the two prime accused in the gang of 4.
The CCTV inside the shop revealed that Mustafa as soon as he entered the shop fired at Walke. A hurt Walke still managed to lunge at his killers and push the gun away. The magazine of the gun fell out as the gun hit the floor. After this Swapnil was stabbed multiple times, the injuries of which killed him.
There was another piece of very interesting evidence picked up by the CCTV. One of the accused (not the one who fired a gun) who had run away came back, entered the shop to look for his gun, did not find it, then came out to pick up his two-wheeler, the second vehicle used in the murder and coolly rode away
On Wednesday night, the teams of Crime Branch set out in all directions and were continuously tracing the contact numbers and mobiles traced in the network dumps, which ultimately took them to the two accused persons.
‘Network dumps’ for the uninitiated, is a complete data of calls made and received through each mobile tower. Investigative teams often zero in on the time period of crime; and experts trace call movements including when certain numbers leave the mobile tower area. One of the accused, according to reliable sources in the police, apparently made a call to family members after the killing, which was picked up and probably served as the first starting point towards getting the killers.
