August 24, 1998

The answer could lie in the results of the forensic test. 

By Sayantan Chakravarty

If only the media could gain access to a forensic laboratory. Then the speculation in the newspapers on "Who Killed Monica Malik?" would have ended long ago. In Delhi, the whole of last week, contradictory "findings" were published about the Zee TV production assistant's killer. They oscillated from her dead colleague Rajiv Rajah to a bearded assassin as public interest focused on a case which, in two weeks, has touched the sensational heights of the Geeta and Sanjay Chopra murders that rocked the capital in the '70s.

It may take at least a week for the truth to emerge. For, the CBI's forensic science laboratory is examining vomit, blood and semen stains collected from the car in which the two were found dead on August 5. Till then, speculation will be rife whether or not Monica was killed by her tall and handsome colleague, who at 21 was six years younger to her.

To the police, all is not unclear though. Ten days after the bodies were found in an Esteem parked in the Rajah family's garage at south Delhi's INA Colony, the clouds of confusion are slowly lifting. Their findings show that Monica, attired in a fawn T-shirt and black jeans, was sexually assaulted, possibly around 3 a.m. on August 5. Her hymen, according to the post-mortem report, was "freshly torn". She also suffered injury marks on her thighs, torso, neck and chin.

Monica probably died within an hour of telling her mother "I'll be home in a while" on her cellular phone at 2.35 a.m. The police believe she was smothered by her assailant. In those final seconds, she apparently gasped for life, biting her tongue sharply with her incisors and throwing up in a desperate bid to gulp fresh air. Rajiv too was found dead in a pool of vomit. The post-mortem report reveals that an "organophosphorus compound" (insecticide) caused his death. The police say that the death was hastened by the three pegs of alcohol that he presumably consumed at the Taj Palace Hotel where he and Monica had attended a charity dinner hours earlier. When found, Rajiv's blue jeans were pulled down to his knees, his blue and white check shirt had been tossed on the front seat and his brown leather shoes were off.

"It is a distinct possibility that Rajiv may have forced himself on an unwilling partner," says ACP M.D. Mehta, the investigation officer. The police infer that an altercation may have ensued in which the reporter killed the girl without really intending to do so. Devastated by his action, he may subsequently have swallowed an insect-killing spray lying in the garage.

It seems improbable that a third person assaulted Monica in the garage, right under the Rajahs' flat. Any struggle (Rajiv's body doesn't bear any mark of resistance) would have woken up the family or at least alerted the two dogs at home. "Only the truth concerns us and we are looking at all possibilities," says Joint Commissioner of Police Amod Kanth, head of the investigation team.

The police are not yet ready to buy the Rajah family's story that relations between Rajiv and Monica were cordial. They have recovered a bunch of cards from Rajiv's house sent to Monica by a Zee TV journalist which could have resulted in some bitterness between the two. A hastily scribbled note recovered from Monica's trousers too holds sinister portents. It reads: "I am sorry it is just one of those days ... I need you bad ... I am feeling insecure ... I miss you, I need you ..."

Was it Rajiv she was referring to ? The police and Rajiv's family beg to differ on the likely person.

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