The killer, apprehended just recently, has killed two girls in the past 14 years just for gold.
The mystery behind yet another disappearance of a young girl from Goa is likely to be solved with police linking the incident to the suspected serial killer who was nabbed in Ponda town recently.
Mahanand Naik (40) was arrested by police in connection with raping and blackmailing his wife's friend. Subsequent investigations had revealed that the accused had killed two young women in last 14 years.
One more instance of alleged killing came to light on Saturday when a family of Vanita Gaude, who has been missing since 1995, claimed Mahanand's involvement in her disappearance.
Ramnath Gaude, Vanita's cousin, who saw the missing girl last time with the accused has lodged a complaint with Ponda police.
Gaude stated that Ramnath had lured his cousin with a promise to get married in 1995, when she was 19 years old and had accosted her from Ponda bus stand. Thereafter, the girl went missing.
Mahanand has confessed of two killings of such nature wherein the girls were lured to various places and killed to rob of the gold ornaments.
The accused used to ask the victims to wear gold and later kill them. In Vanita's case too, he had told her that he was going to introduce her to his father and she should wear gold ornaments, police said.
The Gaude family had then complained to the police against Mahanand but had to give up after police investigations ruled out his involvement in the offence.
Police inspector CL Patil said that the accused appears to be a serial killer and few such cases are likely to come forwarrd during the interrogation.
Mahanand has confessed of killing two young girls Darshan Naik in 1994 and Yogita Naik 2009.
His modus operandi was to take the girls to isolated places and kill them for gold, police said.
The decomposed bodies of these young girls were found at different spots forcing police to believe it as an instance of suicide.
As a consequence to his crimes, Mahanand's family had to face public ire at their native town of Shirda when a mob set their house on fire on Friday night.
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