-- Samir Umarye PANAJI: The high court of Bombay at Goa has granted conditional bail to Santosh Raut, who allegedly conspired with his daughter Snehal Gaonkar to kidnap and murder a minor girl, Utkarsha Parab from Bicholim, in 2010.
The prosecution alleged that Raut's daughter Snehal had wrongfully confined and assaulted the victim. It is suspected that Snehal administered poison through a soft drink and the victim was admitted to Goa medical college and hospital, Bambolim. Utkarsha expired on July 25, 2010. It was alleged that Raut opened the door of the house where Utkarsha was found when her father went with the police. Appearing on behalf of the accused, advocate Arun D'Sa said, "There is nothing on record to establish that there was any prior meeting of minds before the incident on July 16, 2010, which could purport to establish that there was any conspiracy between all the accused in the commission of the alleged crime." However, public prosecutor Carlos Ferreira pointed out that the keys were found with the petitioner and that itself discloses that he was a party to the conspiracy which resulted in the death of the victim. "Prima facie there is no motive attributed to the petitioner for committing the alleged crime," the court observed while granting bail to Raut.(ToI)