Cops' theory on Elena's death inconclusive
TNN
PANAJI: Russian authorities have refused to accept the Goa police's accident theory in teenager Elena Sukhonova's death and said that homicide can't be excluded.
Elena's body was found on the railway tracks at Thivim on May 8. Police initially said that she might have boarded a train to Mumbai and accidentally fallen off of it. However, till date they have not got a single witness who could confirm her presence at the Thivim railway station.
"The Goa police's accident theory is not conclusive. There is a strong suspicion that it could be a case of homicide. Till date we have not received definite answers from the police," said Russian consul general Alexander Mantytsky, who was in Goa to discuss Elena's case with state government authorities.
"A number of our requests to expedite the investigation remained unanswered by the concerned authorities," he said. Admitting that there is a kind of police inefficiency in handling the case, he said, "The police is ill-equipped because they don't have a forensic laboratory. Some reports are pending for years together as the final report is not available." The Russian embassy authorities in Delhi have also taken up the matter with the ministry of external affairs and requested them to investigate into the case.
The consul general met the chief secretary and IGP on Tuesday to discuss Elena's case and also discussed eight more cases that involved an assault on a Russian, arrests and a jail sentence slapped on a Russian, and two cases of robbery of Russian tourists.
Describing Elena as a college student, he said that her parents have asked for her nails and hair for DNA profiling as she her face is now unrecognizable.
Stating that the inefficiency gives a bad name to Goa, he said, "Most Russians are victims of crime and that is why we want a thorough investigation into the cases. We want the accused to be punished. We don't want to promote a negative image of Goa."
Criticizing the stand of home minister Ravi Naik, who blamed foreign tourists for tarnishing Goa's image by their late night lifestyle, he asked, "If late night parties are illegal, then the police should enforce the law and ensure that there are no violations. Why blame the tourists, who are coming here to relax?"
About 44,000 Russian tourists visited Goa during the tourist season of 2008-2009. "Russians are also looking at Kerala. Now, the competition between Goa and Kerala is going to increase," he said.
The Russian counsel said that though some of the cases have been finalized by the police, they found the "answers in the mentioned letters quite formal as they do not contain any concrete information about the course of investigation."
3 June, 2009, The Times of India, Goa edition
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
No one saw Elena at the station: Shopkeeper, staff
No one saw Elena at the station: Shopkeeper, staff
Preetu Nair, TNN
PANAJI: In a further twist to the death of Russian teenager Elena Sukhanova, staff at the Thivim railway station have told TOI that they did not
see the girl at the station on the night her body was found on the tracks.
They insist that it would have been impossible for them to miss her as the collapsible gate to enter the platform at the station doesn't open till 4 am, one hour before the arrival of the Mangala Express.
It may be recalled that on May 8, Elena's body was found on the tracks about 3.5 km from the station. Police had said that from available evidence it appeared that Elena might have travelled either on the Mangala Express which left Thivim station at 5.02am or the Netravati Express which left the station at 7.09am and "somehow fallen from the train while she was travelling".
When TOI visited the station at about 3am on Friday, the collapsible gate to the platform was locked and passengers (mostly migrant labourers) were found to be fast asleep on the floor at
the entrance. At 4am, the gate was opened as the ticket counter had started issuing tickets for the Mangala Express. By 4.30am, the two shops in the station too opened for business.
"We don't open the collapsible gate at the station till 4am. Even if Elena was at the station, she would have had to wait outside and would have been noticed entering the platform once the gate was opened. Generally, whenever a lone tourist is brought to the station in a taxi in the night, the driver knocks at the gate and we allow the passenger to enter. But nothing of that sort happened on the night of May 8," a Thivim railway staffer told TOI. Elena's body was discovered at 7.45am. A shopkeeper at the station added, "No one saw her (Elena) here. It's surprising that all of us could have missed a lone, drunk foreign tourist."
Elena's Russian friends incidentally, had earlier told police that the teenagers had consumed beer on the night she died. "At about 2am (on May 8) myself, Natalia, Galina Evegeny, Georgy and Elena left Mambo's and went to the Baga beach. We all again consumed beer on the Baga beach sands. At about 2.30am myself, Natalia, Galina, Evegeny and Georgy decided to leave and go back to our hotel. However, Elena decided to stay back on the beach and continued having beer. She was in a drunken state," Russian tourist Andrey Dorin had said in her statement to the Mapusa police. She added that she was introduced to Elena a day before the latter's death during dinner at a beach shack and restaurant in Baga.
Meanwhile, Calangute police sources told TOI that the Traveller's Inn, a guest house where Elena was staying before her death, and the Baga-based Buckingham shack, whose owner she reportedly called her "boyfriend", "closed down a few days after the Russian girl's death". "Generally, the shack is open till the last week of May and the guest house is shut sometime in mid-June," said police sources. Shack owner Vishant Kundaikar told TOI, "It was a lean season and there were no customers. So I closed down the shack."
When contacted, senior police officials refused to comment saying investigations were on. Russian consul general Alexander Mantytsky is in Goa and is expected to meet the chief minister on Tuesday.
2 June,2009, The Times of India, Goa edition
Preetu Nair, TNN
PANAJI: In a further twist to the death of Russian teenager Elena Sukhanova, staff at the Thivim railway station have told TOI that they did not
see the girl at the station on the night her body was found on the tracks.
They insist that it would have been impossible for them to miss her as the collapsible gate to enter the platform at the station doesn't open till 4 am, one hour before the arrival of the Mangala Express.
It may be recalled that on May 8, Elena's body was found on the tracks about 3.5 km from the station. Police had said that from available evidence it appeared that Elena might have travelled either on the Mangala Express which left Thivim station at 5.02am or the Netravati Express which left the station at 7.09am and "somehow fallen from the train while she was travelling".
When TOI visited the station at about 3am on Friday, the collapsible gate to the platform was locked and passengers (mostly migrant labourers) were found to be fast asleep on the floor at
the entrance. At 4am, the gate was opened as the ticket counter had started issuing tickets for the Mangala Express. By 4.30am, the two shops in the station too opened for business.
"We don't open the collapsible gate at the station till 4am. Even if Elena was at the station, she would have had to wait outside and would have been noticed entering the platform once the gate was opened. Generally, whenever a lone tourist is brought to the station in a taxi in the night, the driver knocks at the gate and we allow the passenger to enter. But nothing of that sort happened on the night of May 8," a Thivim railway staffer told TOI. Elena's body was discovered at 7.45am. A shopkeeper at the station added, "No one saw her (Elena) here. It's surprising that all of us could have missed a lone, drunk foreign tourist."
Elena's Russian friends incidentally, had earlier told police that the teenagers had consumed beer on the night she died. "At about 2am (on May 8) myself, Natalia, Galina Evegeny, Georgy and Elena left Mambo's and went to the Baga beach. We all again consumed beer on the Baga beach sands. At about 2.30am myself, Natalia, Galina, Evegeny and Georgy decided to leave and go back to our hotel. However, Elena decided to stay back on the beach and continued having beer. She was in a drunken state," Russian tourist Andrey Dorin had said in her statement to the Mapusa police. She added that she was introduced to Elena a day before the latter's death during dinner at a beach shack and restaurant in Baga.
Meanwhile, Calangute police sources told TOI that the Traveller's Inn, a guest house where Elena was staying before her death, and the Baga-based Buckingham shack, whose owner she reportedly called her "boyfriend", "closed down a few days after the Russian girl's death". "Generally, the shack is open till the last week of May and the guest house is shut sometime in mid-June," said police sources. Shack owner Vishant Kundaikar told TOI, "It was a lean season and there were no customers. So I closed down the shack."
When contacted, senior police officials refused to comment saying investigations were on. Russian consul general Alexander Mantytsky is in Goa and is expected to meet the chief minister on Tuesday.
2 June,2009, The Times of India, Goa edition
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