MARGAO
Even as the police detained a “mentally unfit” person from Andheri for the Khareband arson, a bigger question has now come to haunt the Margao police how to deal with such persons, who have made the city footpaths and passages their home.
Margao Police inspector, PI Kapil Nayak, said that investigations have revealed that the 68-year old native of Andheri, Babli Fernandes, is the accused behind the Khareband incident. He said the accused was also involved in a similar incident near Cine Lata in 2010.
“When we subjected him to medical examination at Hospicio after he was picked up for questioning, the doctors gave a report that he was mentally unfit with a recommendation to admit him to the IPHB, Bambolim. But the IPHB said he is mentally sound,” PI Kapil said.
Sources said a person reportedly with unsound mind has been loitering right in front of the Margao police station with an iron rod, but no policemen has ever dared to dispossess him of the weapon. “We are aware of the movement of persons with unsound mind in the city. Though we had rounded them up in the past, there’s no mechanism in place to send them to their native states,” he added.
PI Kapil, however, admitted that such persons can pose a threat to law and order as was witnessed in Khareband.
