TEAM HERALD
VASCO/PANJIM: Virtually ruling out the involvement of other killers in the Vasco double murder, police on Tuesday said Pratima Naik allegedly murdered her sister-in-law Dr Neha and their mother-in-law, Usha, out of frustration in the wee hours of Friday.
Intense police interrogation finally led Pratima to confess to the double murder, which shocked the state, and she was produced in the JMFC court at Vasco on Tuesday evening and was remanded to 14 days police custody.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday evening, South Goa SP Shekar Prabhudesai said Pratima was arrested as the prime suspect late Monday night.
When asked for the motive behind the double murder and if there had been accomplices in the crime, SP Prabhudessai declined to comment.
Speaking to Herald on condition of anonymity, a police official ruled out the involvement of other persons in the double murder. The police official disclosed that Pratima had admitted killing Usha and Neha out of “frustration”, but did not reveal further details.
Another police official told Herald that the woman had earlier attempted to kill her sister-in-law and mother-in-law by giving them doses of sleeping powder.
Sources said she often carried the sleeping powder with herself. Police are now probing whether she had a prescription for the sleeping powder or if was illegally sold by any pharmacist.
This has raised the possibility that she may have drugged Usha and Neha, before killing them in the wee hours of Friday.
A police official said that the autopsy reports had indicated that both Usha and Neha had been murdered shortly after their dinner, as their food had not been fully digested. “It takes about three hours for the food to get fully digested,” said the police official.
“This gives rise to the theory that Usha and Neha must have been killed in the wee hours of the morning and Pratima later ransacked the house to give an impression that robbery was the motive of the double murder. Pratima alerted the neighbours of the double murder only at about 4 am,” said the police official.
When contacted, a doctor in the port town claimed it would have been almost impossible for Pratima to have forced Usha and Neha to consume the sleeping powder.
“The most likely possibility is that Pratima mixed the sleeping powder in their food,” the doctor said.
Police are also likely to summon Pratima’s mother and her ex-boyfriend for interrogation.
When contacted, IGP Sunil Garg said Pratima had once stolen two gold bangles belonging to her mother-in-law and had given them to her boyfriend, who in turn, had passed it on to Pratima’s mother.
The mother had then taken these bangles to a goldsmith, who melted the gold and prepared a new set of bangles.
“The gold was melted and made into new ornaments. The new bangles were then gifted by Pratima to her mother-in-law, by showing it as a gift,” said Garg.
Meanwhile, in a twist to the double murder, police are also probing into the possibility that another relative may have also been closely associated with Pratima. This has come to light through entries in a personal diary belonging to Neha, which is presently with the police, indicating that Neha had noticed the close association of the relative with Pratima.
