The incident occurred around 3 am on October 6. Jagannath Gowari, 76, a retired Indian Navy official, his wife, Leela, 72, and their daughter, Netra, 52, were brutally attacked with a sharp weapon while they were asleep at their residence at Bandarpada village, barely a km away from Arnala beach. The accused managed to flee after Netra’s screams alerted the neighbours. Grievously injured, the Gowaris were rushed to a hospital.After two days of no breakthroughs, Unit 3 of the Mira Bhayander-Vasai Virar Crime Branch decided to scour CCTV footage. The recordings revealed a man wearing a distinctive hoodie walking about half a kilometre from the crime scene at 2.15 am. He appeared exactly 45 minutes before the crime, and his movements struck the police as suspicious.

This was the only suspicious movement recorded in the area, Police Inspector Shahuraj Ravrane of the Mira Bhayander-Vasai Virar Crime Branch said.

Following the CCTV trail, the police discovered that the accused had walked nearly 3 km to a banana field where he had parked his bike. The footage further revealed that he had boarded a train from Churchgate around 11.15 pm on October 3 and got off at Virar railway station at 1.10 am on October 4, a police official said.

Based on the bike’s registration number, the police identified the accused as Deepak Naik, 28, a former jawan with the Maharashtra Security Force (MSF) and a resident of the same village. He had left MSF and joined a private security firm and was deployed at a government institute in Colaba, earning a monthly salary of Rs 40,000. But he had an addiction to online games and betting and had lost around Rs 20 lakh, said Ravrane.

According to the police, Naik knew that Gowari had retired from the Indian Navy and earned good money from fishing. He allegedly thought the family had kept gold ornaments at home. Naik was aware that Gowari’s son stayed in Virar city and believed that he could easily overpower the senior citizen and escape with the valuables, the police alleged. Naik allegedly planned the attack to steal gold from the Gowaris to repay his debts.

On the night of the incident, Naik told his family that he was working a double shift, the police said. After returning from his job, he allegedly took the long route from Virar railway station to Bandarpada village and parked his bike in a banana field. He wore a hoodie and walked 3 km to the Gowari home. According to the police, around 3 am, he entered the house through the back door and attacked the sleeping family. The screams of the victims forced him to flee, and he could not steal anything, Ravrane said.

After the attack, Naik continued reporting to work, allegedly believing that the police could not identify him since he had covered his face. According to the police, they failed to track his movements initially because he headed to the nearby coast, jumped into the sea, and swam more than a kilometre, and emerged at Arnala beach. He allegedly destroyed the hoodie in the sea, which police were unable to recover as evidence.

“The sky blue hoodie helped the police trace his movements and establish his identity. After three days, we finally managed to arrest him in Colaba, where he was working. He is currently in judicial custody,” said Ravrane.