MARGAO
The Goa Police have finally registered a case of murder in the June 25 Loutolim hit and run case, which has seen twists and turns in the last one week. Many a question, however, remains unanswered even as the Maina-Curtorim police have registered the case of murder under Section 302 of the IPC against unknown persons.
The latest twist in the case unfolded on Saturday when the police interrogated the driver of the truck, which was attached by the police from Belagavi-Karnataka on July 5. Sources said the truck driver is believed to have told the police that his vehicle is not at all involved in the hit and run case.
In fact, sources said the truck driver categorically told the police that he had seen the body of the deceased lying on the road and his vehicle had avoided running over the body.
Given the situation, Maina-Curtorim police has a task cut out to trace the killers of the Bihari native Kanahiya Kumar Mondal as well as well as the vehicle that ran over him on the road at Loutolim.
Sources said the police will have to scan CCTV footage of residential house and business establishments along the road to zero in on the vehicle that was involved in the hit and run case.
Who are the killers of Kanahiya Kumar?
With the Maina-Curtorim police finally registering a case of murder on Saturday, the men-in-uniform has a task cut out “ to zero in on the killers of the native of Bihar and to trace the vehicle involved in the hit and run case. For, sources said there are two aspects to the case, one is the murder and the second the vehicle that had run over the body. All this time, the Maina-Curtorim police was carrying out the investigations on the hit and run aspect. But, with the post-mortem examination report shedding light on the injuries, including cut marks and stab wounds, on the body of the deceased, the homicidal angle is now being probed by the police. The question before the Goa police is simple “ who had stabbed Kanahiya to death, the motive behind the murder before he was run over by a vehicle.
Autopsy examination sheds light on ante-mortem, post-mortem injuries
Post mortem conducted by the medico-legal surgeon at the South Goa district hospital has made shocking revelations that the accident injuries found on the body of the deceased were all post-mortem. This means that the Kanahiya had died of the cut marks on his throat and the stab wounds on his abdomen and not due to the injuries caused by the accident. For, it has come to light that accident wounds on the body of the deceased were all post-mortem.
Sources pointed out that the deceased had died due to the cut and stab wounds and was run over by the vehicle after inflicting the stab wounds. Sources told The Goan that the vehicle tyre had run over the chest-abdomen portion of the body of the deceased, but the accident injuries were post-mortem and not ante-mortem.
Questions are also being raised why the cut marks and the stab injuries had escaped the attention of the men-in-uniform given that they were all focused in investigating the case as hit and run.
Issue over custody of deceased surfaces
Even as the police have started investigation into the murder of the deceased, the question whether deceased Kanahiya was in the custody of the police or not at the time of his death has become a subject matter of debate in legal and police circles.
Even assuming that the deceased was technically not in the physical custody of the Ponda police at the time of his death questions are raised whether Kanahiya’s murder or death would have occurred if the police had not to drop him in a police vehicle from Ponda to Loutolim.
Superintendent of Police, South Sunita Sawant has already placed under suspension the three police personnel attached to the Ponda police station for the dereliction of duties by transporting Kanahiya from Ponda to drop him at Loutolim. Sources said the question over the custody of the deceased is expected to surface sooner rather than later as Kanahiya was dropped at Loutolim in a police vehicle. “Even if the police maintain that Kanahiya was not technically in the custody of the Ponda police, every act of the police to drop him at Loutolim has facilitated his homicidal death,” remarked an official in the know.
The official added: “The Supreme Court had said mere detention of a person amounts to he or she being in custody of the police. We will have to wait and see what defence the police take in the event the matter comes under the scanner of a human rights body. For, the police will have to do a lot of explanation, right from the time the cops detained him at Ponda and transported him in the jurisdiction of another police station area.”
Police forms teams to unravel the mystery
District police chief, South SP Sunita Sawant has constituted three police teams to take the ongoing investigations to its logical conclusion. The SP told The Goan that the police have registered a case of murder since the autopsy report has termed the death of the deceased as homicidal caused by cut injuries. “The police have been investigating the case from all angles since the beginning. When we came across the fact the deceased was dropped at Loutolim by the policemen, the three policemen were immediately placed under suspension,” she said.
