Ex-security guard held for perfumer Monika Ghurde's murder: Goa Police

Panaji: A man was arrested in Bengaluru in Karnataka on Sunday in connection with the murder of celebrity perfumer Monika Ghurde, a senior Goa Police officer said. Accused Raj Kumar, a native of Bathinda in Punjab, was employed as a security guard at the residential complex the woman was living in, but was sacked after she complained he was not doing his job properly, Deputy Inspector General of Police Vimal Gupta told media persons here in the evening. [caption id=“attachment_3043664” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Monika Ghurde. Picture courtesy: Facebook[/caption] The accused had withdrawn over Rs 1 lakh by using the victim’s stolen ATM card in Goa, Mangaluru and Bengaluru, before he was arrested by a joint team of Karnataka and Goa Police on Sunday afternoon. “He is being brought to Goa. We will then be in a position to question him and establish the crime motive. He has confessed his crime to the police team that arrested him,” Gupta said. Ghurde, 39, was found dead on Thursday in her three-bedroom apartment in Sangolda village, around 10 km from Panaji. Her partially clothed body was found lying on bed, with her hands and feet tied. The post-mortem examination report suggested she was strangled. “Kumar was removed on Ghurde’s complaint for not doing his job properly,” the DIG said, adding that he had stolen also stolen the victim’s mobile phone. “A probe at the crime scene revealed her mobile phone was missing. We put it on surveillance,” Gupta said, adding that keeping a track of repeated ATM withdrawals from Goa, Mangaluru and Bengaluru and her mobile phone eventually helped police hunt down the accused.