The police team has done a commendable job in cracking the sensational Bogmalo shooting case by arresting both the accused within 24 hours. On Thursday, two assailants arrived at Bogmalo in an Innova car and opened fire on two youngsters. While one succumbed after being shot in the head, his companion managed to jostle his way out, narrowly escaping the attack.
The incident comes close on the heels of a violent attack on RTI activist Narayan Naik at the Sancoale panchayat after being reportedly threatened at gunpoint. Here too, the police managed to track the mastermind in quick time. The common thread between the two cases is that both were contracted attacks with firearms.
While the success in cracking these sensitive cases is appreciated, the bigger worry lies elsewhere. To conclude that there is a breakdown in law and order in the State based on these sporadic cases may be far-fetched at this stage, but there is distinctly a deeper inherent concern here because in a peace-loving State of Goa contract killing is slowly rearing its ugly head.
The spine-chilling broad daylight murder of jeweller Swapnil Walke on September 2, 2020, in the heart of Margao, and the gruesome burning of a resident of Torda-Salvador do Mondo in October 2020 are two horrific cases of supari killing. Then there was one person killed in a shootout at Santa Cruz in June 2020 after two gangs clashed with each other, followed by a firing incident at Taleigao earlier this year. Interestingly, in a surprise raid last month, Panaji police arrested five persons -- three from Maharashtra and two from Goa and recovered three country-made pistols and ammunition.
The firing and murder cases may not be connected, but they reflect a rising trend of the use of firearms. Sourcing firearms and killing for a price is fast becoming a new norm. The irony here is that while police have by and large succeeded in tracking criminals, the system is clueless on how these cheap country-made revolvers are smuggled into the State. It's no secret that weapons are easily available in places like Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar. These States hold the notorious distinction of producing arms in illegal factories. In the jeweller’s murder case, the gun was sourced from a supplier in Bihar, while the Bogmalo case is still under investigation. The proliferation of guns and easy accessibility is a problem that Goa's law and order machinery may find hard to address, and that is the worry.
While the State government invokes the National Security Act and initiates preventive detention against criminal matters on the premise of security and in maintaining public order, there is simply no deterrent against criminals and goons who stand at liberty to walk in with a loaded gun and go on a shooting spree. Instead of basking over the pace at which criminal cases are cracked, we need to ponder over this gun culture.
