Russian shocked by Goa police laxity in homicide case

DNA test took 18 months, bodies cremated without informing kin

Even as the correspondence between the Russian consulate and the Goa police in the homicide case was on, the bodies were cremated without the next of kin being notified.

Dmitry Prosnyakov arrived here on Sunday to retrace his son Antons final days, and in a sense begin grieving for him after the inordinate 18 months wait. If the Goa police had given us a few strands of hair, the DNA test would have been done in Russia or in India privately and the results would have been available in three days. They made us wait for months keeping our hopes alive for nothing, he told Deccan Herald.

Lawyer for the Russian consulate Vikarm Varma said a request for hair samples was turned down by the state police even though there was a strong probability that the two decomposed bodies found on Vagator beach, North Goa on November 27, 2007 were the missing Russians, Anton, 21 and Marina Pulina, 22.

Dmitry had notified the Russian authorities three weeks after his son went missing in Goa. There was no news from him after their last conversation on the phone on November 3, 2007.

Though the case is being treated as a murder Anton’s skull was smashed in the police investigations have got nowhere, the Russian father said. “There has been no investigation at all. The Anjuna police is clueless. I was warned that things would be very slow and the authorities in India are indifferent and will not help. I am experiencing this sense of helplessness personally, said Dmitry.

A keen hiker and trekker his grandfather Anton was a trekking champ, studying to become an aeronautical engineer. He  had been on a trekking expedition to Leh in 2006, and followed it up with another in 2007, after which he was joined by Marina in Delhi. They arrived in Goa in October 2007. Back home in Moscow, Anton was a hero among friends after his daring 2006 India trip.

His father, an engineer in Moscow, regrets he is unable to bury his son according to Christian rites. The Goa police handed over only the skulls of the two victims to the Russian authorities. Dmitry visited the crematorium and sat by the Mandovi river where his sons ashes were immersed to grieve for him. It was very important for me to come here, he said.