Panaji: The Goa police have arrested two property dealers for the alleged murder of an elderly Goan woman, who was found dead in her apartment at Calangute in north Goa on Friday.
Police said the accused, identified as Nikhil Raje, a native of Pune, and Aaquib Khalfe, a resident of Ratnagiri in Maharashtra, committed the crime after a dispute concerning the distribution of commission money over the sale of the victim’s property in Calangute.
Deodita Fernandes, 64, was found dead on Friday evening by a caretaker at a flat she owned in Calangute, police said, adding that her post-mortem examination revealed that Fernandes died as a result of strangulation.
Fernandes, who resides in Mapusa, had travelled to Calangute to meet the duo. When she did not return home and was not answering calls, relatives asked a caretaker to check on her. The flat was locked from the outside, and when the caretaker opened the flat using a duplicate key, he found her lying motionless, said police.
“The accused, identified as property brokers, had transferred funds from the victim’s account to their own after [the] commission of crime and were withdrawing money at the petrol pump in Anjuna, where they were apprehended by the team of Calangute police station,” North Goa superintendent of police (SP) Akshat Kaushal said.
{{/usCountry}}“The accused, identified as property brokers, had transferred funds from the victim’s account to their own after [the] commission of crime and were withdrawing money at the petrol pump in Anjuna, where they were apprehended by the team of Calangute police station,” North Goa superintendent of police (SP) Akshat Kaushal said.
{{/usCountry}}“Preliminary investigations suggest a possible motive of a dispute over commission money over the sale of the victim’s property in Calangute,” he added.
The SP said that the accused were produced before a Judicial Magistrate First Class on Sunday and remanded to ten days of judicial custody.