PANJIM: Navy Officer Anurag Singh Rajawat accused of having planned and killed his mother-in-law and his wife is now behind bars after relentless coverage of the vapour cloud explosion case of New Vaddem.
O Heraldo had repeatedly exposed the loopholes in the investigation and after 48 days the accused is now in police custody.
On November 18, a fire incident was reported in New Vaddem, Vasco which killed a pregnant woman Shivani Rajawat and her mother Jaidevi Singh Chauhan.
Police registered the case of cylinder blast case. However, there was more than what meets the eye.
On November 22, the brother and son of the deceased duo Shubham Singh Chauhan came ahead and alleged that this was a premeditated murder and not a blast incident.
O Heraldo got access to unseen pictures of the incident site on Nov 23 which suggested that it was not an incident of cylinder blast but a vapour cloud explosion and looked intentional.
It was on November 27 that Vasco Police broke the silence and agreed that it was vapour cloud accumulation that caused the fire. The police also acknowledged the fact that the knob of the stove was open when the Fire Fighters reached the house.
The police were in a fix on December 1 after the fire Department wrote back to them to investigate the matter thoroughly and send a report of the incident.
On December 6, brother of deceased Shivani Rajawat filed a police complaint and complaint before the SDM alleging that his sister and mother were murdered. He named Anurag Rajawat for allegedly planning the murder and also alleged dowry harassment against him and his mother.
While the police kept insisting on wanting the report of SDM for further inquiry on December 22, the SDM submitted the report to the police advocating for a thorough inquiry in the matter for dowry harassment of Shivani.
On December 24, Vasco Police registered a dowry death case against Anurag Singh Rajawat for the alleged death of his wife and her mother based on the report submitted by the Mormugao Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM).
Finally, on January 5, Vasco police laid their hands on the main accused Anurag Rajawat, arrested him and booked him under Section 302 of IPC for murder.
The relentless coverage of O Heraldo has resulted in the arrest of the Navy officer. If not on Friday, the police were about to have a tough time arresting him as the period for arrests would have ended. Rajawat has been sent to six days of police custody and now interrogation will follow.