VASCO
A man who is alleged to have hired the two killers to shoot and murder a 30-year-old man from Vasco at a secluded spot in Bogmalo was arrested on Saturday, while two pistols along with a magazine and cartridges have also been recovered from the two accused who were earlier arrested in the wee hours of Friday.
On a day when police made significant progress in investigations into the murder of Amar Naik on Thursday evening, Superintendent of Police (South) Pankaj Singh said Goa police had arrested Ravi Shankar Yadav (30), a native of Raghavpur-Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh but residing at Anjuna.
SP Singh said the Yadav is alleged to have hired the two assailants, Shailesh Gupta (29) of Gorakhpur-UP and Shivam Singh (22) of Jaunpur-UP, to murder Naik and added that police investigations had revealed that Gupta had shot Naik.
The police were yet to reveal the motive behind the murder of Amar Naik or provide more details on how Yadav was connected to the murder of Naik.
The incident took place over a property deal when the accused shot dead Naik near Ranghavi Estate in Bogmalo on Thursday evening. Naik’s friend, Pritesh Kuttikar of Chicalim, was also shot at, but he claimed to have ducked the bullet and escape from the two assailants.
Both accused were residing in Mumbai and are believed to be professional contract killers.
SP Singh also said the police had recovered two country-made pistols used in the offence at the instance of the two accused persons along with magazine and cartridges.
Meanwhile, the body of the deceased, Amar Naik, was taken to his residence in New Vaddem on Saturday morning and was later moved to the Hindu Crematorium at Kharewaddo-Vasco for final rites.
A number of people from different walks of life offered their condolences to the bereaved family and the final rites were performed by Amar’s brother, Arvind, at the Hindu Crematorium on Saturday afternoon.
The murder of Naik has shocked the port town and police were quick to launch a massive manhunt for the two accused who had fled from the site after gunning down and murdering Naik, while allegedly attempting to murder Pritesh Kuttikar, who reportedly ducked the bullet and escape from the killers.
The police cracked the murder case within 12 hours, when the two accused were nabbed at the Cansaulim railway station in the wee hours of Friday.
Police investigations had revealed that the two assailants had travelled in a rent-a-car and during their escape, had lost control of the vehicle. The car veered off the road and landed into some roadside bushes. The accused had abandoned the vehicle and police later found out that car owner had given the vehicle to a person operating a hotel in Anjuna.
Anjuna police then got hold of person who had taken the car on rent. Sources said the person was earlier residing in New Vaddem, but had left the area some years back to start some business in North Goa.
