In police net

MARGAO/QUEPEM: Curchorem police arrested Kalpana Bariki, 30, on Tuesday on charges of murdering her husband Basavraj Bariki , 38, a native of Bailhongal, Karnataka, in cold blood, in a flat at Curchorem. After committing the murder, Kalpana, with the help of her accomplices, hacked the body in three parts, stuffed the parts in gunny bags and disposed them off at three different locations at Anmod Ghat on the Goa-Karnataka border, police said.

The murder took place on April 1. If not for an eyewitness, who summoned the courage to spill the beans to the police two days ago, the murder could have well gone undetected. As no other family members or relatives of the deceased stay in Goa, Basavraj’s disappearance went unnoticed and no missing person’s report was lodged, police sources said.

South Goa SP Arvind Gawas told TOI that the murder was the direct fallout of an illicit relationship between the accused and her accomplices.

The deceased’s wife was having an extramarital affair with all her accomplices, and so she wanted to get rid of her husband. The husband worked as a taxi driver in North Goa and would come home once in a fortnight. As he suspected her extramarital affairs, he would often pick quarrels with her,” Gawas, who interrogated Kalpana, said.

While three accomplices — Suresh Kumar from Rajasthan, Pankaj Pawar from Aquem in Margao , and Abdul Shaikh from Cacora in Curchorem — have been arrested, hunt is on for the fourth, Aditya Gujjar, police sources said.

It was after a quarrel on April 1 that Kalpana hatched a conspiracy to kill Basavraj. She summoned her accomplices to her flat to help her execute the plan. “While she strangulated Basavraj with a rope, Gujjar held Basavraj’s legs to pin him down. The others helped in chopping the body and disposing it off,” Gawas said. Packing the body parts into gunny bags, the accused transported them to Anmod Ghat in a vehicle in the dead of the night, and dumped them at three different locations at Dudhsagar.

On Tuesday, Kalpana, following her arrest, pointed out to the police the exact locations where the chopped body parts of her husband were dumped. They were recovered by the police in a decomposed condition.

Police, however, are yet to recover the vehicle used by the accused to dispose the body.

Curchorem police have booked an offence against all five accused under Section 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) of the IPC. Further investigations are under way.

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