The gruesome murder of an honest citizen, Vilas Mehtar, from Porvorim has left the state in shock, as fear continues to reign high at the rate which criminal activities, some being so heinous in nature, are unfolding in Goa.
The weekend saw much development in the murder case of Vilas Mehtar, as police have arrested five persons in total related to the case. All of them have been sent into eight days of police custody.
As the case has unfolded, it was very well known that Vilas was vocal on certain illegal construction activities being carried out by a real-estate builder in his area. As such, several RTI’s and other forms of complaints were filed by the deceased.
This, however, hadn’t gone down well with the building contractor, and as such, threat calls and other forms of intimidation were carried out by the real estate developer.
Through the investigation of the case of ‘supari’ killing, it has surfaced that the real estate builder, identified as Altaf Yargatti, paid a sum of Rs 3 lakh for the hit. The plan, however, was formulated almost a month ago.
The builder met Pawan Badigar, Iqbal Nanpuri, and Vishwajeet Dhabolkar, and all three were tasked with the job to kill Vilas Mehtar. According to police, the initial plans were only to threaten Vilas.
A dying declaration issued by Mehtar proved handy for the police officials, as after calling builder Yargatti for questioning, he disclosed the plan to the police.
The entire supari killing case has left a deep scar of fear among the residents of the quaint village of Salvador do Mundo. Locals have claimed that never have they witnessed such gruesome crimes along the village belt, and even in Goa’s history, crimes of such heinous nature were never seen.
As reported by Goa Prism earlier, two accused were apprehended by Sindhudurg police on Saturday morning after Goa police officials managed to track their location through their mobile phones. A team rushed to Sindhudurg and took custody of the two who were involved in executing the crime.
The car in which they were traveling, a blue Fortuner, was confiscated by the police. However, it is still not clear as to whom the car belongs to. The Congress party has alleged that the car belongs to one, who is politically connected, and hence, no information on the car owner has been given by the police.
According to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways official records, the car belongs to one, S. Shetty. Incidentally, the same Shetty was arrested by Goa Police in connection with a drug-fuelled party at a villa in Arpora in August. He reportedly is also the co-promoter of the famous music festival Sunburn.
The same was corroborated in a local report, which stated that the involvement of one person exists in the case who has previous links to the rave parties busted in the Anjuna area a few weeks earlier. Police will be looking into his involvement in the murder, the report said.
The Congress party, meanwhile, has asked political interference to be kept aside from the case and has asked for police officials to be independent while investigating the case.
Vilas Mehtar, was stopped by the persons, and fuel was poured on him, and he was set ablaze last week. He succumbed a day later to severe burn injuries at GMC.
CCTV footage from nearby areas was scanned and it was also noticed that the accused were roaming about suspiciously in the area prior to the incident. After tracing the accused, arrests were made, police said.
