12 days later, no progress in Curchorem murder case

Margao: After interrogating scores of people and scouring several places for any possible leads for the last 12 days, the Curchorem police are nowhere near to cracking the murder case linked to illegal sand mining.
The police, besides failing to recover the firearm used by the unidentified assailant, have also been unable to establish the motive behind the murder.
Yusuf Alam, 23, of Jharkhand died on the spot after he was shot at in the cover of darkness, while Mohamed Sahu, 33, was critically injured while they were engaged in extracting sand from the river bed at Bansai, Curchorem, on the intervening night of August 31 and September 1. Following the shootout, police arrested Vijay Adel, Ramdas Naik, Amey Adel, Yogesh Adel, and Vivek Naik for illegally extracting sand, all of whom were later released on bail.
Police have so far interrogated scores of people having links to the illegal sand trade, but have been left clueless with the investigation showing no signs of progress. This despite a team of senior police officials drawn from various parts of the state camping in Curchorem during the initial few days after the murder, guiding the investigation.
As pointed out by TOI earlier, the police failure in cracking the case is a pointer to the well-entrenched syndicates in operation in the illegal sand mining trade.
Despite a court-ordered crackdown by the law enforcing authorities on the illegal sand mining trade, the gangs would operate with impunity, cocking a snook at the authorities and silencing those who opposed their activities with threats. The failure of the authorities in reining in the sand mafia only emboldened them to expand their sphere of activities leading to frequent turf wars in Curchorem and surrounding areas.