Nine months after the brutal attack against a 30-year-old youth of Arpora, all the accused except two are out on bail even as police are yet to lay their hands on one of the accused Manoj Singh, brother of notorious criminal Gajinder Singh (Chotu) involved in the attack.
Manoj Singh may not be the prime accused in the case but he has managed to dodge the Goa Police and evade arrest for nine months despite an arrest warrant having been issued against him.
Senior police officers had claimed that they would initiate the process to declare Singh a proclaimed offender as he has been absconding and avoiding a police arrest warrant.
“Accused Manoj Singh has remained elusive despite the arrest warrant issued against him. We will move the court to declare him a proclaimed offender and further order attachment of his property,” Mapusa SDPO, Jivba Dalvi had then told The Goan.
According to police, Manoj Singh has managed to get anticipatory bail recently.
“An absconding chargesheet has been filed against Singh. A regular chargesheet will also be filed against him and he will be tried along with the other 14 accused,” Dalvi informed.
Soon after the attack, Anjuna Police had rounded up 14 accused persons including the history-sheeter Tarzan Parsekar who were involved in the Arpora-Nagoa stabbing case.
It may be recalled, a 30-year-old youth from Calangute, Ravi Shirodkar was stabbed in the abdomen in the wee hours of October 1, 2022 near the Arpora-Nagoa circle.
The attack took place when the group of the accused were returning home after celebrating a birthday party while the victim and his friends were also having fun in open air near the Arpora-Nagoa circle.
A verbal argument ensued between members of the two groups which apparently led to the brutal attack on the youth.
Initially, it was suspected that previous enmity between the two groups had led to the spat and the consequent attack.
The family members of the victim, who reportedly runs a rent-a-cab business, also claimed that it was a pre-planned and the attack was on account of business rivalry.
But according to police there was no motive in the attack and it was just “sudden provocation” that led to the incident.
“It was not a pre-planned attack. It was a spur of the moment rage that led to the brutal assault,” a police officer in the know informed.
What followed was a swift action from the police who first arrested historysheeter Tarzan Parsekar and later rounded up a dozen of the other accused.
A total of 14 persons were arrested by the police in the case out of which only Tarzan Parsekar and Shatrapal Patil (alias Sagar) are still behind bars while the rest are all out on bail.
Anjuna Police has filed the chargesheet and trial has also begun in the case but accused no 15, Manoj Singh still remains at large.
(To receive our E-paper on WhatsApp daily, please click here. To receive it on Telegram, please click here. We permit sharing of the paper's PDF on WhatsApp and other social media platforms.)
