Borivli murderers were young junkies

MUMBAI: Five college students, all from respectable families, have been arrested in connection with the gruesome double murder at I C Colony in Borivli on Wednesday.
The five accused, Ashish Varvale (20), Clinton Fernandes (16), Wilfred Dias (19), Karan Khanna (17) and Clint Fernandes (19), are suspected to be drug addicts known to frequent dance bars.
The police suspect that robbery was the motive behind the killings as the boys were always short of money. The police claimed to have recovered stolen jewellery worth Rs 75,000 and blood-stained clothes from the accused.
However, the knife used to stab Leticia Mendes (54) and her daughter Glenda Lobo (24) has not yet been found. The killers also hanged Glenda’s 18-month-old son Dylan from the ceiling fan.
While Ms Mendes succumbed to the stabbing, Glenda is recovering at Bhagwati Hospital. She has not been told about the death of her mother and son. Doctors said that she kept calling out for “Baba’’ and asking if this was a bad dream.
Leticia Mendes, an old resident of Lopez Manor building, ran a popular cookery class from her one-BHK flat. Her husband and son have been working in the Middle East for many years now while her daughter, Glenda, who is married to rig engineer Sunil Lobo in Pune, was staying with her for a few days.
Ms Mendes’ neighbours said that she rarely mixed with anyone. According to the police, four of the boys gained entry into Ms Mendes’ second-floor flat at about 2 p.m. on Wednesday on the pretext of taking cookery lessons from her.
“They were present in the flat for over an hour, during which they stabbed Ms Mendes 14 times,’’ said additional police commissioner Madhu Shinde.
On hearing her mother’s screams, Glenda, who was asleep in the bedroom rushed to the hall, but was stabbed by the boys. Dylan, who was in the bedroom, started crying, Mr Shinde said. “Fearing that the neighbours might suspect that something was amiss, the accused ripped out the telephone wire and used it to hang the toddler from the ceiling fan,’’ he added.