Herald, Editorial, 8 July 2008 The sword saga
There are several deeply disturbing aspects about the seizure of 17 swords in a truck parked at Moti Dongor on Thursday. The police did a good job to swing into action swiftly, search a large number of houses on Moti Dongor and then nab the culprits, led by Bashir Shaikh, a furniture dealer who was also an accused in burglary and assault cases, and who lives at Moti Dongor. However, the matter deserves a deeper look, as there are several loose ends that need to be unravelled. Bashir apparently bought the swords before last month's communal violence in Margao and the Housing Board, which he says were for his community's self-defence. They were bought from one Jagdish Singh from Punjab, who brought them from his native state via Belgaum. But Jagdish and his father are both absconding, and it is important that he must be held to learn the whole truth. For, Jagdish Singh is the only one who can tell the police how many swords were actually bought, and so that they know how many are still out there. The circumstances indicate that the swords were transported from the rented flat in which Jagdish Singh was staying to Bashir's furniture shop, a distance of just 30 metres, in a Tata Indigo car owned by one Faroque Shaikh, an associate of Bashir. Why use a car to travel such a short distance, unless the load was very large? Then, the consignment was transferred to the truck in a Hyundai Accent car belonging to one Floyd Coutinho, who also has a criminal case pending against him. Coutinho was also found in possession of another Innova car, owned by Bashir's associate Mohinuddin, who bought the truck under an assumed name, Ameen Shaikh, with a fake address in Benaulim. To enable Mohinuddin to buy the truck, one Irfan Kachi, a computer hardware engineer, forged or altered an election card in that name with Mohinuddin's photograph. The police are also on the look out for a tax consultant, Vinod, who is believed to have helped Mohinudin to obtain a PAN card. It doesn't all quite add up. Were the swords moved to the truck before or after the violence in Margao? The question is important, because miscreants burnt down Bashir's furniture shop in the early hours of the morning following the violence. Since no burnt swords are reported to have been found in the debris, had they been moved before the incident? Or is there something we are missing here? What was the need for buying a truck under a fake name by some hi-tech manipulation, transporting the swords by a circuitous route that seems to make little sense, and then leaving the swords in a parked truck atop Moti Dongor? If Bashir was trying to arm his community members for their self defence as he seems to have claimed, why go through all this for just 17 swords? That would mean an expenditure of tens of thousands of rupees for each sword! On the other hand, if he was trying to abandon some leftover swords from a larger stash, why leave the truck at Moti Dongor, where the needle of suspicion was bound to point at the members of his community? There are pieces missing in this jigsaw puzzle, and until the police find them all, the full and correct picture is not going to emerge. In the volatile and charged atmosphere of Margao – where a simple rumour can set off a stampede – it is vital that the entire truth about this episode be known. The Margao Police must make it their business to find out. * * * FAKE PHOTO (in Gomantak Times, July 5, 2008) MARGAO, Could the photographs fo seized swords, published by the media, be 'fake'? It may be recalled that the police had seized approximately 17 "new shiny" swords (four small and 13 big) after they stumbled upon an Ashok Leyland truck, GA01 W5785, that was lying abandoned for several days on the slopes of Monte Dongor, Margao. But the photographs published surprised Margao DySP Umesh Gaonkar, especially since he had resued to accept the fervent appeals of the reporters to show them the swords the previous day. When a section of aggrieved journos called on DySP Gaonkar, he denied any suggestion that the photos had been leaked to a selective media person and termed them as 'fake'. Sources further state that the swords in the published photograph had been obtained from a prominent drama company in the Margao city and point out to the 'blunt' swords seen in the published photograph as proof of their charges.
