NT Reporter
Mapusa
Rovina Pereira Lobo, who has been lodged in judicial custody at the Colvale Central Jail since her arrest in connection with the 2020 double murder of her husband’s aunts, has now been arrested by Colvale police in a case of alleged smuggling of drugs inside the prison.
The arrest follows an investigation into GHRDC security guard Asha Chodankar, who was allegedly caught attempting to smuggle drugs into the Colvale jail.
According to sources, Chodankar was supplying the contraband to inmate Lobo inside the prison premises. Acting on information gathered during the probe, police arrested Lobo in connection with the case.
Lobo was earlier arrested in November 2020 along with her alleged accomplice, Subhan Rajyaballi from Karnataka, for the brutal murders of Marta Lobo, 64, and Vera Lobo, 62, at their residence in Marna-Siolim. The two elderly women were allegedly attacked with a cleaver during a dispute.
According to police investigation at the time, Lobo, then 29, had a strained relationship with the two women and frequently quarrelled with them. Police had said that she wanted to move out of the ancestral house, while the victims, who had raised her husband, opposed the move.
Lobo has remained in judicial custody since her arrest in 2020. Her repeated bail applications were rejected by the Additional Sessions Judge, Mapusa, citing the serious nature of the offences, prima facie evidence, including eyewitness accounts, and her conduct while in custody.
Investigation into the alleged drug smuggling network operating within the jail is under way.
