In the second breakthrough in the investigations into the serial murders in the state, the Goa Police crime branch on Friday arrested two persons from Virar in Mumbai in connection with the murder of 16-year-old Evita Rodrigues.

SP (Special Branch) Atmaram Deshpande said Chandrakant Talwar (35) and Syron Rodrigues (20) were involved in a robbery in a jewellery shop in Ponda last year. “Rodrigues was arrested and later granted bail, but Talwar was absconding. The duo was also behind gang fights which claimed lives of two last year,” he said.

The police, however, refused to comment on whether the duo was behind the murder of the three other women whose charred bodies were found recently. “We suspect these two could be behind other murders, but we will have to wait for the interrogation,” said Deputy Inspector-General Ravindra Yadav, who is monitoring the probe.

Evita’s partially burnt half naked body was found at Verna in South Goa on Tuesday. Earlier on the same day, the Goa Police had also found bodies of two women at Khorjuem near Mapusa and Succor near Panaji in a similar condition, but have still not been able to establish their identities. A day earlier, the police had recovered the body of 61-year-old Conceicao D’souza.

Sources said, the police have still not been able to establish any possibility of sexual assault on these women. “Sexual assault has been ruled out in the case of Conceicao D’souza, but the same cannot be said about Evita. The genitals of one of the other two victims was severely injured while the other woman’s body was highly decomposed,” said a senior police officer.

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