PANAJI
Swelling public reactions to the death of the 19-year-old Nachinola girl whose body was found in mysterious circumstances at Calangute beach last week has exerted tremendous pressure on the police and the government to microscopically re-examine every shred of evidence and conclusively throw up tangible answers to a number of as yet unanswered questions.
However, a senior DySP-level officer told The Goan that as of Saturday evening the probe has not yet achieved the evidential threshold which would prompt them to tinker the ‘death due to drowning’ narrative they have already officially publicised based on solid medico-legal inputs from the post-mortem report.
“It’s not unusual in such sensitive cases for all and sundry to float multiple theories in this age of social media. For us, only hard evidence and not theories based on assumptions and presumptions that matter,” the top officer in the thick of the investigations said.
He admitted that much of the controversy about the case has emanated from the early statement of Calangute Police Inspector Nolasco Raposo, which revealed the post-mortem report’s conclusions that it was a drowning death and sexual assault or foul play was ruled out.
The statement prompted allegations that an attempt is being made to bury the case forcing the police as well as Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to subsequently clarify that the investigations are still in progress and the case is not closed.
The police probe in this week since the girl’s body was found on August 13 has made steady progress, meanwhile, in constructing a real-time account of the girl’s ‘missing hours’ between the time she was last seen by an eye-witness near the Mapusa bus-stand and the discovery of her body at Calangute beach the next day.
“Our mandate is restricted to probing the criminality in the case and registering related offences under the IPC and other criminal laws if necessary based on evidence. We are working on it,” the officer told the Goan.
With the public outcry and political Opposition keyed in on the case raising questions on the probe, the investigations have since been shored up and it is now a collaborative effort between the North Goa police and the specialised Crime Branch, both of which incidentally are under the direct charge of current North Goa Superintendent of Police, Shobit Saxena, IPS.
So far, the girl’s father and other family members who have been severally interviewed by the police, have also voiced mixed reactions to the police conduct.
Police meanwhile have recorded statements of some eyewitnesses who claim to have seen her. The police have also interviewed some people who were at the Calangute beach in the hours preceding to when the body was discovered, including some lifeguards.
Sections of the media have also reported, quoting unnamed police sources, crass personal details bordering on victim shaming and allegedly attributed to data and info gathered from her phone.
The reports also suggest there existed an internal discord between the victim and her family over some of the victims’ daily life habits. None of the several police officers contacted by The Goan was willing to come on record over these claims though.
Saxena was not answering calls but Deputy Superintendent of Police (Porvorim) Edwin Colaco said every bit of evidence available with the police is being scrutinised and re-scrutinised with a fine-tooth comb.
Siddhi’s body was found at Calangute beach early on August 13, a day after she was reported missing by her father after he dropped her off at Mapusa and learnt that she had not reached her work place.
Colaco said the police have also interviewed her employer and the victim’s entire work-place ecosystem but not much has come out of it which could throw much light on her going missing or unfortunate death.
None-the-less, despite their effort thus far, the police are far from the end and have an uphill task to raise the bar and achieve that evidential threshold in their investigations which will enable them to bring closure to the case on the professional front.
It’s another matter that the controversy surrounding the case will die very soon given Goa’s election year fever and candlelight vigils ostensibly seeking justice for the dead teenager are likely to continue for some time to come.
