ANOTHER MURDER IN PONDA WITHIN FOUR MONTHS

PONDA: The Ponda police sub-division on Sunday registered a fifth murder in barely four months and the second within eight days. The deceased has been identified as Shankar Ganba Desai, 25, from Castle Rock in Karnataka.

Ponda sub-divisional police officer, DySP Serafin Dias said the person was found murdered at Gavthan-Usgao while falls within the jurisdiction of the Ponda police .

Incidentally, Desai - a member of a Karnataka-based family that has settled at Usgao - was in Goa with some other relatives from Karnataka to attend a marriage at Usgao on Saturday. While police suspect that a scuffle could have resulted in Desai's murder, no arrests were made until late Sunday evening, Dias said.  Commenting on the post mortem report, police said that Desai was smothered to death either by pressure exerted onto his mouth and nose, or by forcing mud into his windpipe.

The mud-covered body of the deceased was found about 30 m away from the main road near the Gavthan primary school on Sunday morning. The man had worn a blue T-shirt at the time of his death. Police also found some bruises on his face and hands.

Quoting a statement made by the in-laws of the deceased, DySP Dias said that Desai was expected to return home after the wedding on Saturday evening. Speculating on the cause of his death, they said that he had probably got into a drunken brawl with one of his kin, thereby leading to his murder. Desai's in-laws now believe that his relatives might have fled to their native land to evade arrest.

Meanwhile, going by the autopsy report which places the time of Desai's death in the wee hours of Sunday, police have begun listing all of the victim's relatives who are believed to have departed the state on Sunday.

Police have registered an offence of murder against unknown individuals under Section 302 of the IPC. Collem police inspector Manoj Mardolkar, who currently holds additional charge of Ponda, is investigating the case.

Incidentally, this is the fifth murder registered in just four months in the Ponda sub division, which comprises the police stations of Ponda and Collem.

So far the murder of Ramesh Maruti Gaikwad, 30, a native of Sangola in Maharashtra was registered on December 25, 2010, while that of Imtiyaz Malik, 38, from Rumdamol-Margao was recorded on March 2.  Wahid Ahmad Mohammad Munshi, 39, a native of Bijapur in Karnataka was registered as murdered on March 27, while an unknown man was found charred to death on April 10.