Ponda civic body driver held for bid to kill colleague

PONDA: Santan Paulo Pinto, 46, a tempo driver working with the Ponda Municipal Council (PMC) was arrested for attempting to murder his female colleague, labourer Ruksana Rafiq Mulla, 34, with a sickle while she was busy cutting grass inside the PMC garden on Saturday.
According to Ponda police, the accused allegedly attacked the woman for not attending his phone calls.
While Shaikh works as a daily wage labourer for PMC and does chores like cleaning drainage, clearing weeds and cleaning roads, Pinto used to transport the silt cleared from the drainage and weeds collected by the labourers.
Quoting some witnesses, the police said that the accused approached the victim around noon and shouted at her for not receiving his phone calls. The quarrel soon escalated with the man attacking the woman.
“The woman was cutting grass in the garden opposite the PMC building. The accused suddenly snatched the grass-cutting sickle from her hand and aimed at her head. In the attack, the woman suffered two grievous injuries on her head and another on her cheek,” police said. The woman has been shifted to Goa Medical College (GMC) and hospital for treatment and her condition was declared stable.
An offence under section 307 (attempt to murder) and 324 (hurting a person grievously) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered against the accused. Police will produce him before a court to seek his custody for investigation purposes.