06 July,2011 06:25 AM IST | | Priyanka Vora
Joseph Rodrigues, a chronic offender and alcoholic, left a suicide note for cops, saying he was depressed
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The man who held his mother at knifepoint two months ago hanged himself two days ago.
A regular offender, but extraordinary in the manner he chose his victims invariably his kin and in the flourish he carried out the transgressions with red beacons (see box), Joseph Rodrigues (50) committed suicide on Monday in his unoccupied house in Marve Road. He had penned a short suicide note a day before (see right).
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Before committing suicide, Rodrigues called up his wife asking her to take him back. MiD DAY's report on April 20
It read: 'I, Mr Joseph Pascal Rodrigues, have committed suicide due to mental depression.' It was addressed to the senior police inspector of Malad police station dated July 3.
Rodrigues, who had various complaints lodged against him some by his own family at the Malad police station, had earlier shocked the police who had come to pick him up, by threatening to slay his mother to escape them. MiD DAY had reported about the incident (see box).
His family and friends had enough opportunities to acquaint themselves with his peculiar fits.
Last year, the Malad police had to rescue Rodrigues' mother from him as he had held her hostage in the house and did not allow her to leave the home for two-three days, a tactic he was to unleash again, on his wife and kids, in April 2011.
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"The police had intervened and rescued the mother," said a police officer. The cop also mentioned that his wife had registered a complaint against him as he would routinely harass her and their children. He was a known alcoholic.
The suicide
According to the statement of Joseph's wife, Evan, the couple had separated a year ago, and Joseph had been living with his mother whom he had threatened to kill at their residence in Orlem, Malad West.
When Joseph didn't return home on Monday, his sister called Evan up to ask where he was. Since she didn't know, the family his daughters and nephews started looking for him. They found him hanging at the family's residence in Marve Road the same evening.
Evan (46) stated that to the police that Rodrigues had called her on July 2, asking her to come back. He told her he felt like ending his life. "I told him I would take him to a good doctor," said Evan in her statement. MiD DAY tried speaking with Evan, but she was inconsolable.
"We have registered a case of accidental death. Prima facie, it appears to be a clear case of hanging. The post mortem report has also given the reason of death as asphyxia due to hanging.
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I have visited the spot where he committed suicide and the circumstantial evidence indicates the same," said police inspector Vasant Patil, Malad police station.
Oddball
MiD DAY had reported about Rodrigues's stunning antics ('Stop! Or I will kill my mother', April 20) when he held a kitchen knife to his own mother's throat to escape the cops who had come to arrest him for assaulting his teenaged daughters and wife.
He had physically abused his wife and daughters and later locked them in their home and fled the scene. His wife had called the cops to unlock her and complained against Rodrigues, who went to live his mother, when the cops nailed him.
Using his mother as a shield he managed to give them the slip again. On the run, Joseph began to use a red beacon on his car to avoid checks at nakabandis.
He also purchased a leather gun holster to pose as a policeman on duty to fool even high-ranking officers. His con was successful for a week as he was able to avoid all checkpoints. However, he was nabbed at a nakabandi in Orlem where a senior cop spotted him sitting in the car.
