OLD GOA
In an incident which has sent shock waves among Goans, a 54-year-old man lost his life for protecting his wife from an unruly individual who allegedly tried to jump the queue in a shopping mart at Kadamba Plateau, Old Goa.
And to rub salt to the wounds of the family, the accused, Gajanan Pawar, is currently absconding even after a week has passed since the victim, Joseph Dias, breathed his last. The funeral of late Joseph will be held in a church in Old Goa on Wednesday.
According to information available with The Goan, the incident occurred on September 3 when Caroline Dias (52) along with her husband, Joseph, had gone to a shopping mart. Both Joseph and Caroline then waited at separate counters to pay the bill.
While Joseph waited at a manned counter, Caroline waited at an unmanned counter where she was the first person in the queue.
With several customers waiting at the manned counter, the mart staff decided to open the unmanned counter to clear the long queue.
Even as Caroline was the first person at the unmanned counter, another person, Gajanan Pawar, allegedly shoved his way to get in front of Caroline, resulting in an argument between the two.
At this point, Joseph standing at the other counter rushed to the defence of his wife and stood between her and Pawar.
After clearing the bill, the couple then proceeded to head home in their bike with the bags full of groceries. While Joseph was loading bags on the bike, Pawar rushed towards the duo, still arguing and abusing them.
Pawar then is alleged to have assaulted Joseph on the head, causing him to lose balance and fall on the cemented ground, sustaining serious injuries.
Pawar tried to flee from the scene, but was caught by another customer who had witnessed the incident.
The police was summoned to the site and Pawar was taken into police custody by Old Goa police, while injured Joseph was shifted to the GMC hospital.
Joseph sustained a brain haemorrhage and despite a surgery, breathed his last on September 20, after battling for life for 17 days.
