The death of 39-year-old British national Stephen Bennett gets curiouser and curiouser. Three weeks after he was found hanging from a mango tree in a remote village near Roha in Raigad district, Maharashtra, facts contradict the police’s open-and-shut version of the incident.

Police claim that Bennett stumbled onto a village woman, Nirmala Mene, in Malsai in Roha district on December 10, while she was relieving herself and was killed by her angry husband Ramesh who alleged that the “white man” planned to molest her.

Now Nirmala Mene claims she never saw a “white man” and her husband never murdered anybody. Soni Mene, Ramesh Mene’s mother, also claims that the police picked up her sons and charged them with murder, no such incident had ever taken place.

That’s not the only twist.

In a recorded telephone message that Stephen Bennett left for his mother back home just hours before his death, he told his parents: “I am being intimidated here. I have done absolutely nothing wrong but I am being intimidated..and I am scared...Hopefully, I will be able to speak to you tomorrow.. If not, I love you loads...Give my love to the kids...C’est la vie...Bye”

The tone and tenor of this last message was consistent with the series of telephone conversations he had with his parents throughout his time in Goa and later in Roha.

For, in another call on December 7 — three days before his alleged murder — Bennett told his parents about two Indian men “who were far too friendly” who told him they were taking him to Mumbai to see a fireworks display.

... contd.