PANJIM: Goa Police have managed to lay their hands on the accused in the Monica Ghurde murder case, with the arrest of a 21-year-old security guard in Bangalore for allegedly killing the perfume specialist.
The accused was arrested with the help of Karnataka Police and the State police Crime Branch.
“The accused Rajkumar Singh, a native of Bhatinda, Punjab has been arrested in Bangalore from a hotel room where he had checked in on October 8 midnight,” Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police Vimal Gupta told reporters.
Goa Police sources informed that Singh was working as a security guard at ‘Sapna Raj Valley’ at Sangolda and was sacked a month ago, based on the complaint filed by the deceased.
During interrogation, Singh told police that he was sacked on the day of his salary and was holding a grudge of false allegation against the deceased to sack him from his job. It was revealed that an umbrella of the deceased Monica, which was missing, was found in security guard’s room when Singh was on duty and was the reason behind his sacking.
The main motive behind the murder is learnt to be revenge and money. The accused confessed to having committed the crime before the Karnataka police, wherein he stated that he had entered Monica’s flat with a knife and with an intention to rob and rape her.
It has also been revealed that at knife point, he robbed Monica of her ATM cards along with the passwords.
It is learnt that when Monica tried to raise an alarm, the accused allegedly suffocated her with a pillow for five minutes which resulted in her death.
The accused was tracked with the assistance of Crime Branch, Mangalore and Bangalore Police.
DIG Gupta has also given the credit to the Karnataka Police for their support in detecting the murder case.
Monica’s naked body was found in her three-bedroom rented flat on October 6 at Sangolda-Bardez.
During the investigation, it was revealed that she was killed somewhere on October 5.
DIG Gupta informed that the police had registered the case of murder following a complaint from Monica’s husband Bharat Ram Amrutam at the Saligao Police Station.
The police had formed different teams and had sent them to neighbouring States as they had tracked down the accused through the ATM transactions he made from the cards, which he had stolen from Monica, the DIG informed.
The first ATM transaction was in Porvorim while the second one was in Mangalore. The accused was spotted in Mangalore on October 6 after committing the crime the previous night.
“Keeping in mind the deceased’s background, we were working on different aspects. We had also considered her social life. This time, the investigation was different from the traditional method,” the DIG told reporters.
Gupta said police teams from the entire district along with Crime Branch were involved in tracking down the accused. One team had been sent to Bhatinda, Punjab, the native place of the accused.
“The accused was identified based on the ATM’s CCTV footage, which matched with the documents, which were available with the local police,” the DIG added.
