PANAJI
Personnel of the Verna police station are said to have come under the lens of the Goa Police’s Crime Branch which on Saturday began its investigations into the suicide committed by a migrant family, a member of which was booked in a theft case.
South Goa District Police handed over the case to the Crime Branch on Friday after questions came up on the conduct of the men-in-uniform attached to the Verna police station in relation to the investigation of the theft case in which one of the three suicide victims was a suspect.
An official of the Crime Branch said, they have formally launched the probe on Saturday.
The trio -- Hulgappa Ambigera (35), his wife Devamma (28) and his brother Gangappa (29) -- allegedly ended their lives on Tuesday at their home in Zuarinagar which comes under the jurisdiction of the Verna police station.
All three were found hanging in their rented, single-room home located near MES college, Zuarinagar.
The police case against them was registered about a week prior to the suicide incident on a complaint alleging theft of Rs 10 lakh and diamond jewellery from a house.
Other family members of the deceased trio have alleged that they had been mentally and physically tortured by policemen from the Verna Police in the days leading to their suicide.
The trio had been summoned to the police station in connection with a theft case filed against Devamma by the owner of a house, where she was working as a maid.
However, a suicide note left behind at the scene of the crime said that they were being harassed by their extended family members in Karnataka, according to the police.
