Mumbai: Police probe human sacrifice angle in Aarey murder
A preliminary investigation has revealed that Gonsalves had taken his dog for a walk to Aarey Colony on Monday before returning home to leave the dog and going out again.
The police are investigating various angles, including human sacrifice, in the murder and beheading of 22-year-old Brandon Gonsalves in Aarey Colony, Goregaon. When his severed head was found on Monday, some way away from his body, the police noticed a sign similar to a cross or a star on the forehead. It is this that has led them to suspect Gonsalves’s death may have been a human sacrifice. Other angles the police are looking into are drugs or a rivalry.
The police have formed eight teams to look at the various angles. A preliminary investigation has revealed that Gonsalves had taken his dog for a walk to Aarey Colony on Monday before returning home to leave the dog and going out again.To determine the sequence of events precisely, the police are checking CCTV footage from Gonsalves’s neighborhood. Footage from one CCTV camera shows him leaving his apartment with a plastic bag. It is unclear what the bag contained.
Gonsalves, who studied in a suburban college, would often take his dog for walks. On Monday, when he returned home with the dog, he left again but did not take his phone.“The investigation is at a very early stage. We are still probing various angles,” said Kiran Kumar Chavan, deputy commissioner of police, zone XII.
Gonsalves’s headless, naked body was found in the bushes in Aarey Colony on Monday afternoon by a local resident who alerted the police. The police said it seemed that the murder has taken place a few days before the body was discovered and the body had been beheaded after the murder. His severed head and clothes were found near his body.
Gonsalves lived with his mother and elder sister Kashma. He was buried at Oshiwara graveyard, where his father had been laid to rest.A family friend told HT, “From what we have seen, there was a mark resembling a cross on his forehead. He did not have a tattoo like that and we are quite unnerved.” The police have recorded statements of Gonsalves’s mother and sister. They are also questioning his friends to find out if he had enemies.
