- Raj Kumar Singh(21), a former security guard of the residential complex, arrested on Sunday by Goa police in Bengaluru in connection with the murder of celebrity perfumer Monika Ghurde at Sangiolda in north Goa, was on Tuesday remanded in six-day police custody by a local court in Mapusa in north Goa.
The police, who interrogated the accused on Tuesday, told presspersons that he had confessed to sexually abusing the victim ahead of strangulating her.
Transit remand
Singh arrested in Bengaluru, in Karnataka with the help Karnataka police, was brought to Goa on a transit remand on Monday late evening and produced by the Goa police for remand before a Judicial Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.
Addressing a press conference at the police headquarters on Tuesday evening, Dy Inspector General of Police(DIG) Vimal Gupta said that the crime as per the confession of the accused involved lust, revenge and planning.
He said the accused was fascinated by the victim from day one, when came looking for a flat to rent at the Sapna Raj Valley apartments at Sangolda on June 7 and moved in after four or five days.
“He was fascinated by her and kept track of her: that she stays alone, a socialite and had very few visitors coming to her,” said Mr. Gupta and added that he used to wash her car also, interacted with her, was not a stranger to her and had become familiar with the layout of the flat.
The immediate motive, according to police, was his anger against her for a complaint against him about her umbrella, which eventually led to his dismissal on July 2, with almost two months of unpaid salary.
Out of job, with no money and having grudge against the victim, the accused first visited the victim a couple of times pleading unsuccessfully with her to withdraw her complaint so that he could be reinstated. He then systematically planned the crime. He entered her flat on the evening of October 5 at around 6.30 p.m. and left the apartment at around 3.30 the next morning.
On that fateful evening, he apparently rang the door-bell of her apartment, and when she opened the door he entered and flashed a knife and overpowered her, took her to her bathroom and later in a semi-consicous state took her to her bedroom and tied her hands and legs.
After finding hardly Rs. 4,000 in her purse, he threatend her, got her debit card and forced her to give the passwords of the card as well as her mobile. After forcefully sexually assaulting her, he strangled her by pressing her neck and mouth and left with her mobile and credit card, the police said.
