THE GOAN NETWORK
MAPUSA: Goa Police have zeroed in on the husband of the woman tourist who was brutally murdered in Arpora although they are yet to locate his whereabouts. The police are also keenly awaiting the autopsy report of the victim.
Police investigations reveal that from the time the husband-wife duo checked into the Arpora rental apartment on April 20, only once they had ordered food from outside and from April 22-26 there was no movement near the room.
CCTV footage revealed that the accused husband checked out from the rental apartment on April 22 and while moving out instructed the housekeeping staff not to disturb his wife.
A police official privy to the investigation informed that initially police took some time to collate information as the security guard misled them.
During inquiry, the security guard informed the police that on April 26, six people had checked out from the rental apartment, including the accused.
“After obtaining the details of the six people, we sent a team to Nellore, Tamil Nadu and found that they were workers of an MP who had sent them for a holiday here after the elections,” the official said.
Police also found two tickets from Bangalore in the room cupboard but after inquiry it was found that the two persons to whom the tickets belonged o had stayed in the same room and had checked out on April 20.
Police found four to five liqour bottles, a hookah, four to five cigarette packets and 18 beer cans in the freezer in the room.
“While checking out, the accused was completely sloshed and could not even sit in the car properly,” a police source informed.
Police also confirmed that the car that came to pick him up dropped him at the Dabolim airport and the airport CCTV footage showed him going to the airline counter and then boarding the flight.
When police entered the room on April 26, the day the crime was discovered, the AC was in full blast and the room was very chilly.
“When we lifted the body, the blood was dry but the body was fresh. The doctors say the murder could have happened on April 22 and due to the chill in the room, body could remain fresh. The panel of doctors is discussing the matter and that is why there is slight delay in submitting the post mortem report,” the source informed.
Police informed that the accused, Sukhinder Singh is originally from Kapurtala in Jallandar but was staying in a rented flat in Chandigarh along with his wife.
The accused operated as a travel agent promising to send people to Dubai, Canada, etc and has been accused of fraud in his home town, a source informed.
“We are now sure that the husband is the accused in the murder case. What we need to confirm is whether he committed the murder on April 22 and then checked out or came back later and killed her. We are waiting for the post mortem report which will also put a lot of things in perspective,” said Mapusa DySP Gajanan Prabhudessai.
He also said that all police stations have been alerted of the crime and that they expect to locate the murder accused sooner rather than later.
