Thaindian News

Panaji, May 15 (IANS) Russian consulate officials have stepped up pressure on the Goa Police to pursue Russian teenager Elena Sukhova’s death as a case of homicide.
Advocate Vikram Varma, official representative of the Russian consulate, told reporters late Friday that the statement of a senior Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd (KRCL) official, which ruled out accident as a cause of the 19-year-old Russian tourist’s death, should be enough for the police to pursue the homicide angle.

“The statement of a senior and responsible officer of the KRCL, confirming the lack of possibility of an accident clearly implies that this could be a case of homicide,” Varma said. “We hope that the Goa Police can effectively resolve the matter,” he added.

KRCL spokesperson Baban Ghatge, in his statement to the police, has said that there has been no instance previously in the Konkan Railway sector, when a passenger had fallen off the compartment and was subsequently caught under the wheels of the same train.

Ghatge’s statement has punctured the police theory that Elena had fallen off the train and came under it as a result of accident. The Russian consulate has already questioned the police investigations in a letter to Chief Minister Digambar Kamat last week.

In an official communication to Kamat, consul general Alexander Mantytsky had expressed disbelief at the accident theory put forth by the police even before the post mortem could be completed.

Mantytsky had also asked the chief minister to take “personal control” of the police investigation, reiterating that the “accident” theory put forth by the police wasn’t “conclusive”.

Elena’s body was found last week in a mutilated state by the railway track near a village called Revora, about 30 km from here.