Goa police form 3 teams to pursue robbery, stolen gold, supari angles

MARGAO: Goa police on Wednesday constituted three teams to probe the various leads that have come up in the investigation so far — robbery, stolen gold, and contract killing. Several more senior officers from across all divisions have been drafted in for the investigations.
DGP Mukesh Kumar Meena on Wednesday held a closed-door meeting with select senior officers and reviewed the progress of the investigation so far. He told them that all angles need to be meticulously probed by the respective teams, and progress supervised by senior cops.
Sources said that the police have narrowed down the investigation to three angles, all of which have earlier been reported by TOI.
Police sources aware of the development told TOI that each of the three teams is tasked with independently investigating only one particular lead.
The mandate given to each is to analyse and decode all clues relevant to the particular line of investigation. The purpose, sources said, is to ensure that not a single relevant lead with regards to the motive behind the murder gets overlooked, and that the investigation reaches its fair and logical conclusion.
Apart from the robbery angle, which police have already explained as a probable motive of the killers — and which is being further investigated by a team headed by crime branch PI CL Patil — another team constitutes officials from North Goa police, while a third team has officers from South Goa.
TOI’s report on Wednesday raised questions about the perceived change in tack of investigations, as crime branch officers maintained that the motive behind the killing was pure robbery “and nothing more”.