Rs 24L heist: To rob neighbour, Pilerne woman teams up with 2 murder accused

Panaji: Porvorim police have cracked a case of dacoity within 24 hours and have arrested five accused, including two women. The dacoity plan was hatched by the victim couple’s neighbour. The dacoity occurred in the early hours of Monday, with the accused robbing the victims of gold and cash totalling Rs 24 lakh in value.

Three more accused have been identified, and teams have been formed to arrest them. Only part of the stolen cash and gold has been recovered so far. Two of the accused were involved in murder cases earlier.

SP Rahul Gupta said that on March 17 around 3.30am, five armed assailants broke open the door of a rented room at Marra, Pilerne. An iron rod was used to get past the door.

The accused then threatened the residents of the premises, Pappu Biswas and his wife, at knifepoint and robbed them of gold ornaments worth Rs 15 lakh and Rs 9 lakh in cash.

Police said that Joycee D’Souza was a neighbour of the victims and was friendly with them. She happened to learn that the Biswas family had a large amount of cash and gold in their possession.

Joycee accordingly planned the crime along with her friends, Krishna Belgaonkar and Kalpana Barki. Krishna arranged the remaining accused for the dacoity, while Kalpana along with her friend Imran arranged for the vehicle to commit the crime.

After the crime, the gold and cash were distributed between the accused at a Calangute hotel.

Krishna Belgaonkar was involved in a murder case filed at the Calangute police station in 2018 and is currently out on bail. Kalpana was involved in the murder of her own husband at Curchorem in 2018.

Joycee was also involved in a crime registered at the Porvorim police station earlier.

After the FIR was registered for the dacoity, different teams were formed to trace the accused. During the investigation, police were able to identify the accused based on CCTV footage.

Police then arrested Joycee alias Priya D’Souza, 32, from Marra, Pilerne; Kalpana Barki, 37, from Bastora; Pune native Imran Shaikh, 34, from Xel Bastora; Uttar Pradesh native Subhash Kumar, 27, from Colvale; and Dhiraj Gupta, 20, from Colvale.

“Police have managed to recover the stolen property partially, the knife used to threaten, the iron rod used to break the door, and the vehicle used for the commission of the crime, while more recovery is under way,” Gupta said.