MAPUSA
A group of persons, mostly consisting of locals, are alleged to have assaulted five businessmen/workers at the Saraswati Saw Mill in Anjuna on Wednesday over a petty issue on the pricing of wood material.
Anjuna Police swung into action and arrested eight persons, including a woman, and detained a minor in the wee hours of Thursday.
One of the victims, who suffered serious head injuries, is battling for life at a private hospital in Mapusa.
The incident took place at around 3.45 pm on Wednesday.
According to Anjuna Police, the motive of the attack was a dispute on the pricing of wooden material. Apparently, the group of persons who had come to purchase some wooden railings demanded the consignment for half the price, which the businessmen refused.
A CCTV grab shows that the group rushed towards the businessmen with wooden logs and began to beat them up at the sawmill.
After the assault, all the accused made good their escape even as some neighbours informed the police about the incident.
The injured were businessmen Manilal Patel, Dayalal Patel, Bharat Patel, all natives of Gujarat but residing in Parra, and Angad Vishwakarna of Chivar-Anjuna and Shivam Halarnkar of Socorro. Of the five, Manilal Patel was seriously injured.
Soon after getting the information, the police rushed to the site and began investigations. The CCTV camera in the sawmill helped the cops to track the accused and a little after midnight, all eight were arrested.
Police has booked and arrested the accused under Sections 143, 147, 148, 323, 324, 427, 307 r/w 149 of the IPC.
The accused who were arrested were Antonio D’Souza (54) and Allan D’Souza (25), both from Assagao, Fabier Gohar (24) and Suresh Pujar (21), both from Candolim, Jovin Rodrigues (30) and Shervet D’Souza (24), both from Carmona, Imran Khan (23) of Calangute and Azar Shaikh (26) of Malad-Mumbai.
A minor boy who was among the accused has also been detained.
A Mapusa court has remanded all the eight accused to seven days in police custody.
In the meanwhile, the All Goa Saw Mill Owners Association has condemned the assault and demanded strong action against the accused.
“Our association members were brutally beaten and have suffered life-threatening injuries. One of the members is in a coma in the hospital while other members have received severe head injuries,” said Arun Jairam Kamat, General Secretary of All Goa Saw Mill Owners Association.
