Mangalorean Woman who Trapped Men on Net held for Murder
TNN
New Delhi, Sep 26: She is a graduate with a call centre accent, has worked for a while in a BPO and, by her own admission, never failed an interview in her life. In short, there is nothing about her profile that would give away her recent profession - setting up honey-traps for men in internet chatrooms and then robbing her victims.
On Wednesday, 27-year-old Eva Gonsalvez and her 30-year-old friend, Eric Anthony William Massey, were arrested by the south west district police for allegedly murdering a 62-year-old retired Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) general manager, Mahesh Kumar Goel.
The arrests came close to two months after Goel's semi-decomposed body was discovered inside his blue Maruti Zen on July 18 at Dwarka Sector 12. Goel, a resident of Mayur Vihar, had been dead for two days.
Eva Gonsalvez
Goel's Car
Eric Anthony William Massey
Police said Eva's interrogation has revealed how she would strike friendships with rich men on the net, making full use of her call centre-acquired communication skills. Within a day of starting the conversation - the speed was to ensure that she didn't reveal too much about herself beyond her mobile number - Eva would call the victim over at a mall or a hotel to know "each other better". Eric would lurk close by and when the potential victim would arrive, the duo would drug him and rob him of cash, valuables and credit cards.
According to DCP (southwest) Shalini Singh, Goel's death was "unintentional, a deed that Eva is still not ready to believe she committed."
The Mangalore girl who stayed for a while in Ahmedabad, had set up a date with Goel at the Metropolitan Mall in Gurgaon on the evening of July 15.
Goel met her in his car and after some conversation, was offered pastries laced with sleeping pills - the colourless, odourless kinds which domestic helps have often used to drug their employers. "Goel became unconscious and Eric started driving towards the Gurgaon Expressway toll plaza, the plan being that they would rob him and then leave him in the car in a secluded place," Singh said.
But the traffic was heavy and they were afraid that dumping the car on the road would raise suspicion. So Eric started driving towards the Sector 4 market in Dwarka. Goel, meanwhile, regained consciousness and put up a fight. Sensing trouble, Eric repeatedly punched him on his chest and face. Goel collapsed and the duo fled with his belongings.
Two days later, Goel's body was discovered. The postmortem report is yet to be handed over to the police, but it's suspected that the 62-year-old was smothered with a pillow found on the rear seat of the car.
Police zeroed in on the couple after it was found that Goel's credit card was used at least four times at four different departmental, jewellery and electronic stores in Madangir and Kalkaji.
"Shopkeepers told us about a 20-something woman and a man who used to come in a rickshaw, leading us to believe that the duo stayed somewhere close by. We got sketches made and finally arrested them from a cyber cafe. The honeytraps were on in full swing even after the murder, in fact that's what they were doing when they were caught," said a senior police officer.
Eva had struck up a friendship with Eric - who has a wife and a child - in Ahmedabad but it was only in Delhi that they became really close, said a police officer. "Eva has diabetes and in April this year she quit and returned to Ahmedabad because she was too weak to carry on. Eric pleaded with her to come back, found her an accommodation and since then they have robbed countless men like this," he added.
Three laptops, eight mobiles, eight debit and credit cards, one expensive watch, stereo heads, eight SIM cards and 20 sleeping pills were recovered. Using Goel's card, they had bought a fridge, a colour TV, two room coolers and other electronic items, all of which has been confiscated.