Mumbai: I gave cops the evidence against my own son, says Father of 27-year-old man who killed his girlfriend

On the 3rd of this month, Mumbai was shocked to learn about the grisly murder of a 29-year-old woman from Vile Parle. The victim, Carol Misquitta, worked in a call centre and resided at Misquitta Chawl.

On January 24, she had left home on her scooter around 10.30. Around 1.30 in the night, she called up her mother to inform that she would be delayed. The family approached the police who didn't take the complaint seriously.

Ten days later, on February 3, Carol's decomposed body was found dumped on Manor Road in Palghar. The same day, the police arrested Carol's boyfriend and neighbour Zico Misquitta, 27, and his accomplice Devendra Kumar.

The police said that Carol was putting pressure on Zico to marry her, and fed up with her pestering, he killed her. Zico, who worked at a call centre, asked Carol to meet him on January 24, took her to Palghar where he killed her with the help of Devendra, and the two dumped her body in the bushes.

Zico’s father speaks to...

We visited Misquitta Chawl – a gaothan in Vile Parle – and located the ground-plus-one storey house where Zico's parents reside. Zico's father Anselm Misquitta told this newspaper that his son was not at all romantically involved with Carol. “The police have told us that Zico murdered her in a fit of rage. It was a wrong step which he should not have taken, if at all he has taken that step. Let us wait for the truth to come out,” Anselm said.

Anselm, who has two children with Zico being the eldest, has a catering and aquarium businesses. Throughout our conversation, he did not mention Carol by her name, just preferring to address her as “that girl”. “You ask anyone here... not a single person will tell you that they were in a relationship. Not even Zico's friends were aware if he had any relationship with that girl," he said.

He said that his son was not interested in joining his business and wanted to do something on his own, and that he had started working in a call center during the lockdown. “I have heard that they were in a relationship in 2011 and broke up in 2014. I really don't know how true it is. He never brought that girl to our home. The girl's family never came to any of our family events; they were never a part of our happy and sad moments. How do we know that there was any relationship between Zico and that girl? Her distant relatives used to come to our events, though,” he said.

The Jan 24 events

Anselm said that on January 23, his family, including Zico, had gone to their Bhayandar house and returned home in the evening of January 24. “We don't know when and why Zico left the home that day (January 24). He returned the next day. We were trying to get him married and were in talks with a family. We have now come to know that the girl's (Carol) mother had created a ruckus when she found that we are planning to get Zico married. The neighbours are now telling us that they found Zico under some sort of stress. They should have told us earlier; such a situation would not have arisen. I would have met the girl's family,” Anselm said.

“On February 3, when the police told me that Zico had murdered that girl, I was shocked. I had not spoken to Zico and we had no idea what the actual situation was. All I can say is, if he has committed the crime, then he will have to face the punishment. My wife is in shock; never in my life did I imagine I would face such days,” he said.

The 'Evidence'

Anselm broke into tears when he told us that he himself submitted the evidence against Zico to the police. “I gave the police all the material. If you realise, we got our own child arrested.” Elaborating on the evidences, he said, “When the news (of the murder) spread in our area and Zico's name cropped up, my younger son, while going through the CCTV camera footage outside our house, came across a footage in which Zico could be seen leaving on a two-wheeler on January 24. The CCTV footage gets deleted automatically from our recording system after a certain number of days and had my younger son not seen the footage, it would have been deleted. I called up the police and asked them to collect the footage. The cops said they will arrive in the morning and I insisted they collect the footage immediately.”

Anselm said that Zico's friend called up the family to inform that Zico had left his laptop computer and mobile phone with him. “He told us that Zico had given him the laptop on January 25. We informed the police about the laptop and the phone. Even the clothes and shoes that Zico wore on January 24 were handed over to the police by us,” he said. When asked about Devendra Kumar, Anselm said, “Devendra did odd jobs for us.

When I met Devendra in the lockup, I asked why he did not alert me about Zico's plan. The least he (Devendra) could have done was to call me. Things could have been sorted out. He simply kept his head down and did not respond to what I was asking,” he said

He could have just broken up with her: Carol's mom tells the FPJ

Carol Misquitta's mother Catherine raised her as a single mother after her husband died when Carol was just three years old. She said that never get over the trauma of having to identify her daughter's body based on a tattoo and a childhood scar on left foot. “My girl was all set to join a multinational company on February 2.

She left home saying she was going for the medical test and documentation ahead of the joining formalities,” Catherine said. “If Zico didn't want to be involved with my daughter, he could have simply broken up with her. Why did he kill her? I was not even able to identify my girl. All I want is justice for my daughter and death penalty for her murderers,” said Catherine, sobbing, and holding on to Carol's photo. Giving a different version of Zico and Carol's relationship compared to what Zico's father said, Catherine told this newspaper, “Zico used to visit our home frequently and was on very good terms with Carol and me. There was a fight between the two a fortnight ago, and when Carol tried contacting him he refused to continue the relationship,” Catherine said.

She said that she sensed something wrong when Carol did not return home the next day. “She had a habit of bathing and changing into a fresh set of clothes at least thrice a day. When we approached the Santa Cruz police on January 25, they turned us away saying it had not been 24 hours since Carol had gone missing and asked us to return the next day.

We were told to wait and see if she returns, as she could have run away with a partner or gone for a picnic. This eventually delayed the registration of a missing person complaint. From the very beginning we suspected Zico's role but the police failed to act swiftly,” she said. On searching her house, Catherine found a two-page letter addressed to Zico by Carol, which they showed to the Santa Cruz police, but the family alleged that they let Zico leave after 10 minutes of inquiry. “We kept asking the cops to find out the last location of Carol's phone and get the call data records, only to be told that there was a process which takes time,” alleged Carol's aunt

Published on: Tuesday, February 22, 2022, 08:54 AM IST