Colva, Mar 15 (TOI): Additional sessions judge Sayanora Telles Laad on Wednesday ordered that accused Vikat Bhagat be charged with murder, rape, robbery and destruction of evidence in the case of British national, Danielle Maria Theresa McLaughlin, whose body was found in an open place.
The case has now be posted on March 26. Bhagat was arrested by Canacona police on May 14, 2017, a day after the corpse of the victim was found by a farmer while passing through open fields.

According to the chargesheet, the accused befriended the 28-year-old deceased who took her in an open isolated field between 10pm to 7am at Ape-Deubaug and allegedly raped and assaulted her with glass bottle on her head and face and committed murder by compressing her neck and robbed her mobile and also destroyed evidence.

Police, during investigation, found that that Vikat Bhagat, alias ‘Wicket’, a convicted felon, had several injury marks in his groin and thigh area.

He was identified as the killer from blood found on his clothes and scooter.

McLaughlin’s blood-stained clothes were also found in a backpack dumped in a field close to his home in Canacona.