Chop Mahanand to pieces, say Jotkars

MARGAO: They perhaps feared it, but didn���t want a confirmation to come their way. Perhaps, they would still like to be in a state of denial.
On Wednesday, when Davorlim couple Reshma and Dattaram Jotkar were informed of serial killer Mahanand Naik���s confession that their daughter Deepali was another of his victims, they found the ground beneath their feet slipping away.Though the couple tried to veil their feelings, their stunned silence and tears betrayed the storm within.
Deepali and her sister Pallavi have been missing for the last four years.
A long silence greeted Auda Viegas of Bailancho Ekvott after she broke the news. Reshma, 45, later said she refused to believe Mahanand���s confession.
���How could it be? Sometime in 2007, some relatives had informed me that Deepali was seen at Fatorpa,��� she said. Reshma also referred to the recent phone calls from Deepali���s cell phone to their son Bhupendra. ���Also, I have this strong faith in God and every time I visit our purohit, he keeps telling me that both my missing daughters are alive,��� she told TOI.
Reshma���s husband echoed her sentiments. ���Have the police verified whether the bones found at Fatorpa were that of Deepali? How can they believe the killer���s confessions without any proof?��� asked the 55-year-old.
���Tea mel���liak chenchun marpak zai. Itlea lokanchea sounsarak tannem vatt laili. (Mahanand should be chopped into pieces for killing so many innocent girls). I want justice, not just for my daughter but for the parents whose daughters have been killed by Mahanand. I know their pain.��� Incidentally, some days back Reshma had slapped Mahanand atPonda police station.
Recollecting how they were blamed by the people and the police for their daughters going missing, Reshma said, ���Whenever we approached the police for help in the search for our daughters, they made us feel miserable. They tried to convince us that we were re-sponsible for their having gone missing. Every effort to reason with them failed and we silently suffered. I admit that fearing a public backlash I didn���t lodge a police complaint but then would it have made any difference? How many parents of missing children have got justice from the police?��� Reshma asked as her emotions swayed from rage to tears to disbelief.
���My daughters Deepali and Pallavi used to refer to Mahanand as jiju (brother-in-law). Never did I realize that he had a plot in store that would destroy my family as he behaved in a decent manner,��� said
Davorlim resident Reshma Jotkar after she was informed on Wednesday of serial killer Mahanand Naik���s confession that Deepali was one of his victims.
However, Reshma and her husband Dattaram found something amiss when a whisper campaign in the neighbourhood started on how Mahanand would drop Deepali and Pallavi home regularly on his bike.
���My life is now ruined. None of my four children is with me. What is the use of my struggle in the Middle East for 14 years? I struggled to give my children a better life. What did I get? What do I do?��� Reshma asked repeatedly holding on to a family photograph taken during better times.
Interestingly, in the family album there���s a photograph of Mahanand and Pooja at a religious ceremony at the Jotkar house in 2005. The Jotkars insisted that Pooja should be interrogated by the police.
Meanwhile, Viegas asked Maina-Curtorim police to register a missing FIR regarding Pallavi who went missing in 2005. In a petition to the police, Viegas has also sought a probe into the six phone calls she received after publishing an appeal to the Jotkar sisters to return. ���Every time some one tried to make me believe that the two were alive, which I guess might be a bid to mislead the investigation,��� Viegas said in the petition.