Cops verifying stolen gold angle in Swapnil Walke murder case

MARGAO: The investigation into the Swapnil Walke murder case has reached a crucial step, with crime branch personnel trying to ascertain if the murder was borne out of a sales transaction that went awry pertaining to stolen gold, though a few other angles are also being probed.
Sources said that the probe has thrown up valuable leads that have prompted the police to verify its links to the Rs 1.5 crore gold robbery case booked by Anjuna police in February. Significantly, police investigations have also turned their focus on the 340g gold block worth Rs 17 lakh allegedly stolen by Walke’s killers from outside the state. Police are verifying if it has any links to the murder.
Omkar Patil, who was the first to be arrested in the Walke murder case, was earlier booked by Anjuna police in connection with the gold theft case, while Evander Rodrigues, the latest to be arrested in the murder case, is also learnt to have been involved in the Anjuna case, and police were on his lookout.
What has led investigators to follow the leads in the Anjuna case is the police findings that Patil and Rodrigues had been camping in Margao for the last 2-3 months before the murder. Police are trying to verify if the duo was trying to trade their stolen gold from Anjuna to gullible goldsmiths in the town during the period, and if the Walke murder was borne out of a sales transaction that went awry.
A view has also been gaining ground in police circles that had Anjuna police succeeded in recovering the Rs 1.5 crore gold believed to have been robbed by Patil, Walke’s murder could have been prevented. Anjuna police, it is learnt, had managed to recover just Rs 4 lakh worth of gold.
Rodrigues had conned the complainant in the Anjuna case, a 60-year old woman related to him, into parting with her gold jewellery to be kept in a safety locker, with Patil as his accomplice in the conspiracy.
All three culprits who have been arrested in the case so far are residents of Santa Cruz and belong to the same gang. Significantly, all three have criminal antecedents.
Though Shaikh is originally from Fakirband, Margao — a slum-like locality, where his brother and parents still live — he had shifted base to Santa Cruz a few years ago.
Police sources said he was also charged in a double murder case at Old Goa, but was convicted under Section 304 (culpable homicide to murder) of the IPC, and got discharged a few years ago after serving a three-year prison term. Sources said Shaikh also has a medical certificate showing that he had undergone treatment for a mental illness, which, investigators fear, would be used by him to defend himself in the murder case.
Sources associated with the probe, however, stated that it wouldn’t affect the police case adversely. “Such detailed planning that went into the heinous murder cannot be the handiwork of a mentally-ill patient,” the source said. Shaikh, in association with another accomplice who was earlier detained by the police but yet to be placed under arrest, had planned the murder, it is learnt.
Patil, who has several cases of robbery booked against him, was among the two who had attempted to escape from Anjuna police station lock-up in June 2014, and were later re-arrested. He was arrested from Santa Cruz hours after his escape.
The investigating officer in the murder case, PI CL Patil, alongwith with another police official, visited the Walke residence on Sunday as part of the investigation.
Meanwhile, South Goa SP Pankaj Kumar Singh has proceeded on 10 days leave, with SP (CID) Mahesh Gaonkar given additional charge of South Goa.