Monika Ghurde murder: Chilling details emerge; accused sexually abused her, say cops

Panaji: The man held for the murder of perfumer Monika Ghurde spent two nights on terrace of her building monitoring movements and sexually abused her before strangulating her, police said Tuesday, as chilling details emerged about the sensational case.

The accused, Rajkumar Singh, has confessed to sexually abusing Monika after tying her to bed in her apartment and also forced her to watch porn clips, they said.

Singh, a 21-year-old native of Punjab who worked as a security guard here, has been arrested for allegedly murdering the photographer-turned-perfume specialist on the night of October 5 at her rented flat in Sangolda village in Goa.

Singh, nabbed from a Bengaluru hotel two days ago, was brought to Goa on transit remand last night. The accused was today produced in a court of a Judicial Magistrate of First Class at Mapusa town, which remanded him in seven-day police custody.

He was tracked on the basis of ATM transactions he made at different locations after stealing two cards of the 39-year-old woman and forcing her to reveal their PINs.

"The accused has confessed to the crime. He has told the Investigating Officer that for two days he took refuse on the terrace of the building where Monika lived before forcibly entering her flat on October 5 evening," Deputy Inspector General of Police Vimal Gupta told reporters at police headquarters here.

Singh, during interrogation, narrated how he tortured Monika throughout the night before strangling her to death, Gupta said, adding he tied the victim to bed and went to the kitchen, where he had boiled eggs for dinner.

Gupta said the accused arrived in Goa on April 5, 2016 in search of a job and was employed as a security guard in the complex, where Monika came searching for a rented flat.

"The accused was attracted towards Monika since the day she inquired about availability of a flat in the complex and later followed her movements when she started residing there. After his duty as a security guard, he would wash cars of the residents, including that of Monika," the DIG said.

Gupta, who interrogated Singh at Saligao police station in presence of Superintendent of Police (North) Umesh Gaonkar in the morning, said the accused developed grudge against Monika after he was sacked from the job on July 22, 2016 after being accused of stealing her umbrella.

"The security agency, which had employed him, kept on hold his two months' salary amounting to Rs 22,000," the IPS officer said.

"After losing his job, Singh worked as a labourer in Ponda town for sometime before visiting places like Pune, Chennai, Hyderbad and Mumbai in search of employment but was unsuccessful," Gupta said.

During this time, the accused contacted Monika and requested her to tell the security agency to release his salary. She, however, refused to do so.

Overcome by anger and sense of revenge over what he perceived as humiliation by the perfumer for his loss of job, Singh went to her residential complex on October 3. He spent two days on her building's terrace looking for opportunity to get inside her flat and finally succeeded on October 5 at around 6.30 PM, the DIG said.

Gupta said the accused had a scuffle with Monika in bathroom. He then overpowered and tied her to bed and sexually abused her.

Fearing Monika will complaint to the police, Singh smothered the perfumer to death but before that forced her to reveal PINs of ATM cards and password of her mobile phone.

The DIG said the woman screamed for help several times during her captivity but no one from the complex could hear it.