Famed Indian perfumer raped before being killed in Goa flat

The accused disguised as a security supervisor to gain entry into Monika Ghurde’s flat

Monika Ghurde, noted Indian perfumer, was deprived of cash, ATM card with ATM number before being raped and murdered in her Goa residence this week.

Revealing disturbing details of the crime, Goa DIG Vimal Gupta confirmed that a former security guard, Rajkumar Singh, had raped Ghurde. Singh, who confessed to the crime, had planned the murder.

According to Gupta, the accused posed as a security supervisor to gain entry into the victims’s flat. When she opened the door, he forcibly entered the flat, overpowering her, following which he tied her to the bed.



According to the confessional statement, Ghurde told Singh to take whatever money was there in her purse. After he demanded more, the perfumer told him to take her ATM card and gave him the PIN number too. Singh took her mobile to prevent her from alerting anyone.

Singh then forced Ghurde to watch three porn clips before he raped her, according to the DIG. He will be tried for rape along with murder.

"We will add Section 376 [rape] IPC to the case," DIG said. Goa Police said that revenge, lust and robbery were the motives behind the crime.

Monika Ghurde, originally from Nagpur, had done a photography course from Mumbai’s JJ Institute of Applied Arts. She moved to Chennai in 2009 and later shifted to Goa in 2011.



The noted perfumer had established her perfume-making company Mo Lab and was also researching perfumery. She collaborated with eminent designers such as Jean Francois Lesage, Christian Louboutin and Anand Kabra.

Ghurde separated from her husband one year ago and had moved into the flat in Sangolda, a posh locality of Goa, in July. Among the few visitors to her house was her Mumbai-based brother Anand who would occasionally be accompanied by their mother.

This article originally appeared on Times of India