Team Herald
MARGAO: Of the 25 murders reported in South Goa district in 2022, police said a majority were triggered by personal motives, rather than for gain – personal vendetta, jealousy and illicit relationships and drunken disputes were cited as the reasons behind the altercations that claimed several lives in the past year. While 22 of the 25 murder cases have been solved, most of the murder-accused were from other States like Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh, and in the 30 to 52 age group, said police sources. Strangely, nobody was murdered during a robbery in South Goa last year.
There were also cases where no concrete reasons were cited, like the uncle who was stabbed to death by his nephew in Canacona. Ajay Kharat, 24, allegedly stabbed his uncle Janu multiple times in a flash of rage, when the latter visited his house to try and solve a dispute between him and his father. The accused tried to escape by crossing the Goa border but was nabbed by the police at Pollem .
Excessive alcohol consumption also led to murders. Ajay Malli, a native of Bihar, allegedly strangled his wife to death because he suspected she was having an extra-marital affair. Malli, who was drunk at the time, later dumped his wife’s body near a government primary school and escaped to Bihar. He was later traced by the Canacona police and is presently cooling his heels in Colvale Jail.
The State was also left aghast at a few public murders- like the gang brawl that ended in the murder of 22-year-old Muktar Badni, who was celebrating his birthday with his friends at Azad Nagar when a rival gang attacked them. Similarly, four persons stabbed 33-year-old Umesh Harijan to death in broad daylight, when he was leaving a temple at Baina. The assailants were armed with koitas, swords and cleavers, and later fled on two-wheelers.
The case that left the Quepem police baffled, and has still not been solved, was the murder of a pregnant woman, whose skeletal remains were found wrapped in a plastic bag in a forested area of Ambeghat in October last year. The identity of the deceased, reportedly a young girl, is yet to be ascertained, and the investigation has not thrown up any leads.
