The murder of high-profile Monika Ghurde, 39, a known perfumer and part of Goa’s elite circuit, comes with more than its share of sensation. The grisly nature of the crime, her naked body, porn videos, a textbook stalker and a tony neighbourhood made it a much-read crime story which typifies Goa’s increasing underbelly, reports MAYABHUSHAN
In 2008, when 15-year-old Scarlett Keeling was found sexually assaulted and dead on Goa’s Anjuna beach, for days there were no answers. But back then, there were obvious questions which were being asked about the safety of women in Goa.
In 2016, nine years later, there is a different corpse. But the same old and critical question — safety of women continues to hound the coastal state and India’s tourism Capital.
The high profile murder of Monika Ghurde, 39, an upcoming perfumer and part of Goa’s elite circuit, comes with more than its share of sensation. She was beautiful, single (she had separated with her photographer husband), independent and well-networked. Add to this the grisly nature of crime, the semi-naked body, porn videos, a textbook stalker and a tony neighbourhood made it a perfect crime story in the times we live in; where lurid has more currency than lucid.
As for the alleged murderer, a former watchman and a native of Bhatinda, in Punjab, named Raj Kumar, 21, was arrested in Bengaluru, after leaving a trail of ATM withdrawals behind him.
Incidentally, on the same day, away in the dusty reaches of South Goa’s Kakoda village, Shobha Karmali was also strangulated to death in her bungalow, allegedly by thieves, who had slipped in after her husband stepped out to work at a nearby factory.
There were no cameras trained on Shobha’s unsung corpse. Predictably, her killers haven’t been caught until this article went to Press.
The issue of crimes against women in Goa isn’t one which crops up every now and then. It’s just been there for a while now. The occasional sensational murder of a Scarlett Keeling or a Monika Ghurde just serve as grim reminders to those outside this State, that all may not be well in paradise. Most of the people here know that already, including Goa Governor Dr Mridula Sinha.
Sinha had underlined this issue as a matter of major concern during her liberation Day speech in 2014, a year after she assumed charge of the gubernatorial office.
“I have observed an unfortunate trend of increasing crimes against women and girl children in the State. This undesirable trend badly affects the image of the State and the country. Our law enforcement agencies should take serious note of this. The people should also make their contribution to address this serious problem which is threatening our social and cultural fabric,” Sinha had said.
The Governor had good cause for her concern.
In 2012, 228 crimes were reported against women. The number doubled in 502 in 2013 and 549 in 2014. In 2015, the number dipped a bit to touch 441 crimes against women.
Molestation numbers too took poor turn, with 57 offences in 2012 to 197 in 2013 to 236 in 2014. The numbers again dipped a bit in 2015 to 184. Rape and kidnapping numbers too chart a similar trajectory. On ground, women in Goa, whether the local or foreigners, not much appears to have improved, making Sinha’s imploration more than relevant.
“Given the recent tragic event that has shaken up our sense of security in our own hometown, single, independent women are asking themselves this question: Are we safe in our homesIJ The rest of India has caught up with Goa, bringing with it, people of dubious backgrounds, characters of all colours, cheap, low quality tourism and migrant class seeking employment. Police stations are full of cheating and fraud cases, robberies reported across the length and villages of Goa. Innocent women victimised on account of property, rejected advances or harassed simply because you chose to make a different life for yourself. Even the auto and taxi drivers talk down to you. There is simply no value for life in India. SafeIJ What is safe anymoreIJ” according to Public Relations professional Ethel da Costa.
Goa State Commission for Women chairperson Vidya Tanawde also acknowledges that crimes against women are increasing, but adds that police statistics perhaps just reflect the tip of the iceberg.
“Police are not interested in recording complaints when it comes to crimes against women. Which means that women, who are victims of such crimes are harassed by the police when they go to register these complaints,” she says.
It doesn’t speak much for a State, when a legislative committee report links former home minister Ravi Naik and his son Roy to the drug mafia in Goa and indicts a former director general of police Kishen Kumar for providing cover to the narcotics industry.
In course of the Scarlett Keeling trial, the deceased teenager’s mother Fiona Mackeown also named Naik and his son as having links to drug trade.
Goa-based fashion designer Michelle Banarse is herself an independent woman with her own design label. She has been attacked twice during her stay in Goa and like Tanawde suggests, going to the police, for her, is not an automatic option for the same reasons.
“The police don’t help. Going to them is not an option. Chances are it is going to get bad or worse. There is an attitude that an independent woman is somehow asking for it. We have a long way to go before perceptions change here,” she says.
She also says that while crime against women in not rare in India, in Goa, she claims, there is an element of pack hunting.
“What I have noticed here though it’s never one person, they always run in packs and that really is frightening,” Banarse said.
Sinead McManus, an Irish woman and a Goa-based entrepreneur, knew Monika and her death has made her rethink her personal safety, especially when it was a security guard who unleashed hell onto the perfumer.
But she would like to think that Monika’s murder and was a one-off, but that doesn’t mean independent women should not take adequate precautions.
“I would like to think that this is a one off case and that we are safe as independent women but we also need to take our own precautions. In case of emergency, have a number saved in your mobile. Have a friend check on you and vice-versa. lock up your home properly at night. With your staff workers, etc, who are around you, as foreigners we want to be really friendly with everyone, use your gut feeling. If something doesn’t feel right, do something about it,” she advises.
Goa-based author and food writer Kornelia Santoro also wants women to gear up on their own to ward off attackers. “I do not feel safe as a woman in Goa especially when it is dark. I avoid risks like going alone to places where I could be attacked. However, women face violence all over the world, not just in India. The lesson is to learn self-defence, practise loud screaming and develop an attitude. Being a victim starts in the head,” she says.
Sabina Martins, who heads Bailancho Saad, one of the oldest women’s rights group in the State, has a more holistic take on the incident. She says for predators, whether a woman is independent or not doesn’t matter.
“Married, unmarried, single divorcee, etc, all are vulnerable. If a man wants to harm a woman, he will do so, even if men are around. Only the strategy might vary. The key issue is the mind-set of men who consider sexual assault is okay as far as a show or power is concerned,” she says.
Martins also wants the security agency which held up Kumar’s dues to be hauled for non-payment, which she claims may have added to Kumar’s agitation.
“Most of the newspapers reported that the accused security guard was not paid his due. The security agency should be hauled up for not paying his dues. The lesson we should take from this is that one should pay due wages on time. Non payment of wages can aggravate violent tendency,” she said.
Paula Green, a UK native has been living in Goa for over a decade and is married to an Indian, says that in recent times there a palpable feeling of aggression in the air.
“There does seem to be more aggression in the air these days. It is palpable. My observation of young Indian men, is that they don’t particularly like to take instruction from women, it seems to me that they see it as some kind of humiliation. I personally would advise every woman, single or not, to learn a few self-defence techniques. You never know when they may come in useful. It is good to know how to disable an attacker in this unpredictable world we live in,” she says.
But sometimes violence is just about violence. And as rank outsiders to the local culture and knowhow, foreign nationals, both men and women, appear to have been played a bad hand in recent times. And we are not talking about Scarlett Keeling alone.
Over the last 10 years, nearly 260 foreign nationals have died in Goa and British tourists top the death count.
Goa’s conventional tourist season starts in October and winds up in March, when the mild winter sun works as a good break for travellers from Russia, UK, Germany and other European countries from the harsh winter. Four million tourists visit Goa annually, nearly half a million of which are foreigners.
One of these many tourists was 40-year-old Stephen Bennett, a British holidayer who arrived in Goa in 2006 and his body was found mysteriously hanging from a tree in Roha village, on the outskirts of Mumbai. His sister Amanda, who has been following this case for nearly a decade now, without refusing to give up, says that in Goa not just women who are vulnerable, but men and children too.
“None of these rapes and murders are coincidences or bad luck. They’re all pre-meditated, the same names crop up time and time again. There is an established pattern in serial offences. The police blame the victim,” she says.
Harrowing stories like one involving Monika only serve as a reminder of the grim realities of Goa, a State which is only perceived as a destination of revellery, nightlife and sea, sand and sun, in India. Dig a little deeper and the picture is not exactly pleasant. Monika, in her death, may have reminded us, that Goa is a paradise, only in patches.
Wilted Jasmine
Daughter of a judge at Mumbai’s Small Causes Court, Monika Ghurde was a trainee photographer with ace photographer Bharat Ramamrutam, whom she later married. The couple would often travel to Goa on professional assignments.
Over the last few years however, after a stint at professional photography, she had come into her own as a perfumer, with a special devotion for the scent of jasmine. After training at United Kingdom’s prestigious Picot laboratories, she had even worked with noted writer William Darlymple to trace the origin of the flower and delve deeper into the scent.
Her life in recent times involved building her perfumery Mo lab in Chennai and was known for her workshops on perfumes and ways and means of developing and honing a sense of smell. Her endeavours ended with her earning a moniker ‘lady of Smell’.
Unfortunately, for a lady trained in the vagaries of smell, Monika tragically could not smell any trace of death around her, as she opened her door to allow a once-smitten security guard into her plush apartment at the Sapna Raj Valley, in Sangolda village, once a sleepy village and now an emerging real estate hub, located near the popular Calangute beach.
Raj Kumar, a native of Bhatinda in Punjab, according to the police was smitten by Monika to the point of obsession. The obsession took a nasty turn after Monika complained against him to the apartment complex’s management about Raj stealing an umbrella. The management, which had already received complaints about Raj, sacked him in July.
Raj’s anger against Monika, who was the last to complain against him, simmered for a few months of unemployment and penury, after his security agency did not pay him his two month dues. After stalking her for a few days, according to the police, Raj, slipped unnoticed into the apartment complex, knocked on her door on the evening of October 6, 2016.
By the time he left the door open again at 3:30 am the subsequent day, much had happened. Raj Kumar forced his entry into the house when Monika partially opened it. He assaulted her, which sent her into a semi-conscious state. She had been over powered, tied to her bed, filmed, raped, killed and robbed. Her purse was emptied and the Rs10,000 in it stolen along with her ATM card, whose pin was extracted at knifepoint when she regained consciousness before life was snuffed out of her.
He even showed her a few porn clips before strangulating her.
The desperado
Among the many things that Raj Kumar during his eight-hour stint at Monika Ghurde’s apartment, other than the brutal torture and strangulating her, was boil eggs and shave, with her body still tied to the bed.
Kumar, after coolly exiting from the apartment complex, went to the neighbouring Candolim village, where he withdrew his first batch of cash using Monika’s ATM card. From Candolim, he came back to the State Capital and headed for Panaji and there on to Mangalore, where the police were alerted by another ATM card withdrawal. It was after he travelled to Bengaluru and withdrew more money again, that his game was up. A joint team of Goa Police and Bengaluru police officials nabbed him at the reception of the hotel he was staying in, just as he came back from a round of shopping.
According to Deputy Inspector General of Police Vimal Gupta, Kumar cumulatively withdrew around Rs1 lakh from the victim’s account. The motive according to Kumar was “revenge, lust and robbery.”