Now, love angle to Russian girl's death

Now, love angle to Russian girl's death
Preetu Nair, TNN

PANAJI: The 19-year-old Russian girl, whose mutilated body was found on the railway tracks in Goa, didn’t want to leave the state as she had
fallen in love.

Police sources told TOI that Elena Sukhonova had said this in a statement to the cops on May 6. According to the statement, Elena was in love with a boy named Vinay alias Vinny, working as a waiter at a shack on the Baga beach.

However, when told of this, the shack owner expressed surprise. He said, “Vinay left the job a month and a half back. He used to come to meet us sometimes. The girl must have come to the shack twice but I don’t think they were in love.” Elena’s body was found by railway gangmen at around 7.45 am on Friday about 3.5 kms north of Thivim railway station.

Elena’s statement was recorded by the Calangute police after the general manager of a hotel at Baga-Calangute had lodged a missing complaint on May 5 stating that Elena, whose tourist visa was to expire on July 1, 2009, and staying in the hotel and had gone missing from around 2 am on May 3.

In the complaint, the resort’s GM also said the Russian teenager had checked into the hotel on April 19 and was to check out on May 3. But on the day of the departure, she was not in the room, though her luggage and ticket were there. Elena, the GM said, had disappeared with the room key.

The hotel GM told TOI, “A hotel security guard spotted her early morning at 1.30 am on May 6 near our resort. We persuaded her to come to the hotel and also informed the police. She told the police that she was staying in a guest house. We asked her to return the room key and the police asked her to stay in our resort and recorded her statement, after which she left.”

The resort staff said that the teenager loved to party late at night. She had also dated a 22-year-old waiter from Himachal Pradesh, Bir Singh. However, when the hotel authorities came to know about it on April 24, Bir was asked to resign. “Bir left Goa on May 6 and is now at Himachal Pradesh,” police sources said.

Meanwhile, the police refused to comment on the mutilated body, citing the election code of conduct.

A post-mortem is expected to be conducted soon. “We are waiting for a representative from the Russian consulate to come,” said a doctor from the Goa medical college and hospital.

KR officials refute cops’ argument

Later in an “appeal” released to the media, the police said, “Investigation revealed that she was dropped at Thivim railway station by a yellow cab at about 3 am on May 8 and she had mentioned to the driver that she wanted to go to Mumbai. From available evidence it appears that she might have travelled either on Mangala Express which left Thivim at 5.02 am or Netravati Express which left at 7.09 am and ‘somehow fallen from the train while she was travelling’.”

However, the police argument of Elena having fallen from the train is disputed by Konkan Railway officials. A railway engineer said, “A person falling on the tracks from a running train and getting killed is next to impossible. If a person slips and falls from the train the body gets entangled in the wheel and then can be pushed into the tracks, but this is rare. Generally a person who slips or is pushed falls away from the tracks and not on the tracks.”

Calangute police sources also said that in her statement, Elena said that after leaving the resort she went to Anjuna and was staying at another place. However, according to the guest house register and its staff Elena checked into the hotel room at 8 pm on May 6 and was to check out at 10 am on May 8. She had also paid the rent for two days in Indian currency.

The guest house staff added, “On May 7 at 10 pm she left with a handbag and kept her luggage in the room. She also took the room key with her.” Police sources said that later she was spotted at a popular night club in Baga till the wee hours of May 8 and she was there with a 39-year-old Russian

May 11,2009, The Times of India, Goa edition