Malsai is a typical nondescript village, some 20 km off the Mumbai-Goa highway, in an obscure corner of Roha, with no proper road access.
Today there are scores of media-persons headed on that narrow lane leading to the village. All want to know how Bennett, a British national, ended up dead on a tree after he came to Goa as a tourist last year.
The village with a population of 400 people sees regular power cuts and has no easy access to potable water. The villagers are wondering what have they have done to get so much attention from local, national as well as the international media.
According to the police, Bennett was murdered on December 10 and it was the villagers of Malsai who killed him. They claim Bennett had entered one of the houses as an intruder and the villagers chased him and beat him to death. They then strung him up from a tree.
The investigating officer, Ravindra Patil, told rediff.com, "Bennett entered the house of accused Ramesh Mene probably to seek help. He met his wife Nirmala in the wee hours of December 10. She thought he had come with wrong intentions and shouted for help. Then Mene with four other neighbours rushed in and attacked Bennett."
However, Malsai villagers say they have no idea who Bennett was and had never seen him before. They claim the police have made up the story and arrested innocent villagers just to show that they have solved the case.
Image: Malsai is a small dusty farming village with 400 people.
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