More bodies of women found

More bodies of women found
TNN

PANAJI/VASCO/MAPUSA: The discovery of more bodies of women in Bardez taluka on Tuesday has baffled the police. While two partially burnt bodies were found on Monday, another body in a similar state was discovered on Tuesday. Besides, the police also found a fourth body with the head smashed on Tuesday.

On Tuesday morning, the halfburnt, semi-naked body of a woman suspected to be in her early twenties was discovered in an open, isolated area at Khorjuvem. Suspecting murder, police said the woman, reported to have Mongolian features, might have been murdered elsewhere and the body brought to the spot.

Incidentally, the woman’s body was left on the roadside although there are overgrown bushes a few metres away. Police suspect the woman could have recently got married as she had mehendi on her hands and sindoor on her forehead. Incidentally, rubber chappals were placed on her private parts and the body burnt.

In the other case, police found the decomposed body of a woman in some bushes near the government primary school at Succor, Bardez. The woman was wearing a green sari and blouse. Police have found blood stains in the school premises and said that the head had been smashed. Police believe the woman would be around 25 to 30 years old.

Police PRO, SP A V Deshpande said, “Don’t link the murders as it is still too premature. The only common thing is that all three are women and were burnt. Till the investigations reveal the real facts of the case, we cannot comment.”

While the half-burnt body found by the Old Goa police at Merces on Monday remains unidentified, the police have identified the body of a 16-year-old girl found burnt on Monday at an isolated spot at Verna. The body was identified after the girl’s mother, a Taleigao resident, approached the Panaji police to lodge a missing complaint.

Her daughter Evita Rodrigues, an open school student, had gone missing since Sunday morning. Evita had left the house after informing her mother that she would be going to her friend’s house at Santa Cruz and then the two of them would go to Vasco to see the exam centre. However, when her daughter didn’t return home at night, the mother phoned Evita’s friend only to learn that her daughter had never come to her place.

Admitting that it was a case of murder, Vasco DySP Mahesh Goankar raised concerns regarding the similarities in the cases of Evita and that of the woman with 50% burns found in Merces on Monday. In both the cases, polythene pieces were found near the body. Police have requested the Goa Medical College and Hospital to form a panel of doctors to conduct post mortems on all three women.

14 October 2009, The Times of India, Goa edition