Goa: MGP leader's kin refuse to accept body, demand arrests

Relatives of MGP leader Prakash Naik, who allegedly committed suicide, said on Saturday that they would not accept his body until the two men he had named in a WhatsApp message before his death were arrested.

According to the police, Naik blamed two men including a Goa minister's brother in his last message for his decision to end life.

Naik, who unsuccessfully contested the 2017 Goa Assembly election on the ticket of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Paksh from St Cruz, allegedly shot himself dead at his house in Merces village on Friday.

The police said that Naik had posted a message on a WhatsApp group, accusing a state cabinet minister's elder brother and another person of harassing and blackmailing him.

Addressing a press conference here, Naik's sister Sarita Goverkar said the probe should be handed over to the Crime Branch.

"We will not accept the body until both the persons named in the message are arrested," Goverkar added.

Naik's brother Vinay said the way the probe was being conducted aroused suspicion.

"The police have not recorded statements of the persons named in the message. Instead they are summoning his well-wishers," he said.

It could also be a murder as the gun was on Naik's chest when he was found lying in a pool of blood in his bedroom, Vinay Naik alleged.

A senior police officer said a forensic team had collected some samples from the spot, and "all angles" were being probed.

At present the police have only registered a case of unnatural death, he added.