PANAJI: Four men who allegedly killed a doctor in his south Goa house late on February 7 were intercepted at a police checkpost in Rajasthan’s Bhilwara district and placed under arrest, the Goa police said on Thursday after their counterparts took the four including the doctor’s domestic help into custody.
The four men had travelled 1,400km to Rajasthan via Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh in the doctor’s car. Police said they were tracked using the location of the 27-year-old doctor’s mobile phone that they also stole and carried with them.
Nishant Bharat, 27, a native of Madhepura Bihar, lived alone in a house in the Betalbatim area of south Goa and worked at a private hospital, ‘My Eye’.
“We received information on Wednesday evening from his colleagues that the doctor who worked at My Eye hospital in Nuvem, not far from where he was staying, was not responding to calls and that his house was locked,” South Goa superintendent of police (SP) Abhishek Dhania said.
“After we entered we found his body tied and stuffed in the bed box drawer,” he said.
Dhania said that when investigators scrutinised CCTV camera footage from the area, they saw one of the four men who used to cook and help Nishant around the house, (Simanchal Parida) entering the apartment block with another person. “After around 15 minutes two others were seen entering the house,” Dhania said.
The four accused, identified as Simanchal Parida, 31, Alok Singh, 19, Nagendra Kumar, 25, and Shahid Khan, 23, were seen later driving away in the doctor’s car.
“The primary motive of the crime was to steal his cash and belongings as well as his car. We have recovered cash, electronic devices as well as the car that was stolen,” Dhania said.