Cruel John

AROUND 11.30 pm on the night of March 26, some residents of Umtvaddo in coastal Calangute heard the screams of 30-year-old housewife Ballis Miranda. People had seen Ballis and her 35-year-old husband John Luis Miranda return home after shopping in Mapusa that day. The neighbours, not knowing what had happened, rushed to Ballis’ rescue only to find that the door was bolted from inside. They broke the door open and when they pushed aside the refrigerator, which had been kept there to block the door, they were stunned. They saw Ballis, along with her son Reginald and daughter, lying in a pool of blood.

Meanwhile, John burst into the house with a half-burnt rubber tube in his hand. He had already sustained burn injuries on his back. The neighbours doused the flames and saved him. But they could not save the lives of Ballis and her 4-year-old son Reginald. The mother and son died of deep gashes on the head and the back. They were pronounced dead by the time they reached the Goa Medical College.

Their daughter Libra, who is merely 2 years old, however, was saved. Her wrists had been inhumanly slashed and there were injuries on her neck too. John’s mother and sister were stunned to find the ghastly incident, in which a chopper (koito) and two knives were used.

John married Ballis, who hails from Deussua in Pernem’s Kcomao village, about four years ago. John, who worked as a tourist guide in Calangute, didn’t seem to have any history of violence except for his frequent quarrels with Ballis for going to her mother’s place and staying there for long sabbaticals. She was to proceed again to Deussua a couple of days earlier but John prohibited her from visiting her parents.

John was arrested for murder under Section 302 and 307 of the IPC. The mystery about the exact motive for the murder is yet to be ascertained. Was it that she used to go to her mother’s place because she was tortured by her husband? Was there any other motive for her to go there? Did John suspect her fidelity? Possible! But why did he wreak vengeance on his two innocent children?

There were rumours that John Miranda had been treated for mental problems. But the Institute of Psychiatry and Human Behaviour clarified that the man has not taken any treatment from the institution. However, on the day of the funeral of Ballis and Reginald, her father Kistu Fernandes kept repeating that John was a matka gambler and that he had pawned or sold his wife’s ornaments to raise money to fund his vice.