PANAJI
Two Jharkhand natives charged with murdering a fisherman aboard a fishing trawler off the Goa coast were arrested at Nagpur Railway Station after allegedly fleeing the State by train.
Police said that the accused, identified as Duryodhan Devsai Manjhi, 30, and Laldev Nandkumar Manjhi, 30, both natives of Jharkhand's Simdega district, were tracked through mobile phone surveillance, CCTV footage and inter-state police coordination before being apprehended late on Wednesday.
The arrests came three days after trawler owner Manjunath Harikant, a native of Karnataka, was allegedly killed aboard his boat in the open sea near the Vasco Fishing Jetty. Police said the victim was attacked between 7.30 pm and 9 pm on May 30.
While the case was initially suspected as unnatural death, an autopsy revealed severe head injuries – indicating foul play also as suspected by other fishermen. Agassaim police subsequently registered a murder case under Section 103 read with Section 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
Police said they obtained the mobile number of one of the suspects through technical inputs and placed it under surveillance. Analysis of location data and Cell ID records helped police track the movement of the accused after the crime.
At the same time, officers examined CCTV footage from and around the Vasco Fishing Jetty, which enabled them to identify the suspects. Their photographs and details were circulated to railway police units along the route the accused were believed to have taken.
Police later determined that both men were travelling by train and alerted authorities along the railway network. Acting on the information, railway police personnel intercepted and detained the suspects at Nagpur Railway Station.
A team travelled to Nagpur and took custody of the accused before bringing them to Goa for further investigation. The accused are expected to be produced before the Judicial Magistrate First Class Court at Merces for remand.
