The Kashmiri boyfriend of the British woman stabbed on a houseboat has told how he has confronted her killer begging for answers.
The body of Sarah Groves, 24, was found in a pool of blood inside her cabin on a houseboat on Lake Dal, in the picturesque town of Srinagar in Kashmir.
Police said her body was discovered with multiple stab wounds and with a knife lying beside her in the early hours of yesterday.
A 43-year-old Dutch tourist called Richard de Wit, is reported to have fled the scene in a small boat which capsized in the lake, forcing him to swim to the shore. He was arrested and has reportedly confessed to her murder.
Stabbed to death: Sarah Groves was found stabbed to death on a boathouse in Kashmir. Her boyfriend confronted her alleged killer, who has reportedly confessed to the crime
Discovered: Police have said the 24-year-old was found inside the boat and had suffered around 40 wounds
Saeed Shoda (left) says he has spoken to Dutch national Richard de Wit, who was arrested about 45 miles from the scene of the suspected murder
He had met and fallen in love with Miss Groves, from Guernsey, in the first week of January in Goa.
Saeed said: ‘I don’t understand why he killed her. He had no reason to kill.
‘I saw him at the police station and I asked him why. I begged why, why did you kill her? He brazenly replied: “I killed her; that’s it. The devil took over my body”. He isn’t normal.’
De Wit had arrived at the New Beauty houseboat, where Sarah was also staying, just two days before he broke into her room and allegedly stabbed her to death.
Saeed is now traumatised and cannot think of a future without Sarah.
He added: ‘We’d only known one another for three months so it was too early to talk about marriage and children, and I have no idea if we would’ve got married, but she was a perfect girl.
Saeed Shoda described Miss Groves as ‘perfect’ and the pair were planning a trekking holiday together
Crime scene: Journalists and policemen stand outside the houseboat where the Miss Groves was found dead Saturday, on the Dal Lake in Srinagar, India
A police officer holding Sarah’s hiking boots. She was a keen traveller and had raised money for a children’s charity by climbing Mount Kilimanjaro
‘I can’t explain what I loved about her but she was different from others. I’ve been in the tourism industry since my childhood and I’ve met hundreds of foreigners but she was just so charming.
‘I liked the way she thought about life. She was full of energy and wanted everyone to be positive.
A police officer with a pair of Sarah’s shoes at the front entrance to her room on the houseboat
‘She would always tell me we need to be determined and do all we can to achieve our goals.’
Saeed said he met Sarah at a café, on Calangute beach, in Goa, in the first week of January this year while she was on a backpacking trip.
‘We just got chatting in the café and got on quickly. She was a very relaxed person and she did a lot of yoga.
‘I am so traumatised about her death. I can’t think about the future without her now. I just want justice for her and answers from her killer.’
Saeed had gone to Pahalgam, a hill station 100kms from Srinagar, on Friday night with his friends.
He said Sarah didn’t want to go and insisted he went without her.
‘The first I heard of this tragedy was when my brother called my friend’s phone to speak to me at 8am on Saturday morning. I couldn’t believe it. I froze for a moment and then I wept like a child.
‘I wish I hadn’t gone to Pahalgam. I torture myself with those regrets now. She may still be alive if I was here or if she had cone with me. I don’t know how I can come out of this trauma.’
Saeed quickly hired a taxi back to Srinagar as soon as he heard and began helping the police with their enquiries on his return.
He added: ‘The killer is not right in his head. He is not of this world. He doesn’t seem ok when you speak to him. He will not divulge anything about his crime, he has confessed to the crime but will not give any details.
‘I want him hanged. He had no reason to kill her. She didn’t do anything wrong. I just don’t understand.’
Saeed’s brother Irfan says the police did not send forensic officers until a day after the crime
Tragic: Indian policemen carry coffin containing the body of Miss Groves
Investigation: The police station where the dead body of Sarah Elizabeth Grove is being kept
Saeed has spoken to Sarah’s family back in Guernsey.
‘The family are devastated but will still come to Kashmir. I don’t know how to face them because they had trusted me. It’s an awful situation, just so sad,’ he added.
Saeed was looking forward to seeing more of Sarah in the future.
He added: ‘She was coming back to Kashmir in June and we were planning to go trekking. She couldn’t go trekking during these winter months so we had plans to go to the countryside in the summer instead.
‘She always talked about trekking. We used to talk on the houseboat deck till 3am most mornings. We’d talk about everything.
‘She stayed at the houseboat for most of her time in Srinagar because of the curfews that had been in the city of late.
Probe: River police investigate a boat on the lake where the houseboat is moored
The getaway boat believed to have been used by de Wit. Sarah painted ‘No Woman No Cry’ on the interior
‘She helped my mother, helped us to renovate the houseboat. She painted the houseboat railings herself and decorated it. She also wrote a message on our boat – No Woman No Cry.’
The boat Sarah wrote on is believed to be the same one that de Wit allegedly used to flee the scene.
Saeed added: ‘It was a very short time we were together but I will never forget her. She has left a mark on my life. She had a great wonderful soul.’
Sky News spoke to Deputy General Inspector Ahafadul Mujtaba, who said: ‘He has told us he killed the girl – we don’t know why. He also says he had taken drugs, cannabis.
‘We have taken his blood samples and have sent them away for testing. We have also not ruled out a sexual motive but there was no direct evidence at the scene. We are awaiting medical results.’
Kashmiri news agency CNS, quoting an anonymous police, reported that de Wit confessed during interrogation.
He said: ‘During questioning he confessed that he murdered the British tourist. We are trying to know the motive behind his action but he has not stated anything yet about this.’
Scene: The houseboat where the body of Sarah Groves was found in Srinagar today
He was arrested in the town of Qazigund, 45 miles south of Srinagar, in wet clothes and without shoes. He was carrying his passport.
The police say de Wit will be held in custody for the next 14 days whilst they continue to gather evidence. Under Indian law a confession to a police officer is not admissible in a court of law.
The Crime Scene Investigation Squad and forensic officers arrived at scene of the crime 10am this morning – over 24 hours after the incident – to finally collect Sarah’s belongings and search the room for any important evidence.
Saeed’s brother, Irfan Shoda, 23, said: ‘The investigators asked us for polythene bags to carry the evidence material. They even packed the evidence in used carrier bags. And they wrapped the bedding in which Sarah was found in other bed sheets.’
Miss Groves, left, was staying in the cabin next to Richard de Wit, pictured in a Facebook photo (right)
Inside: A pair of shoes (left) belonging to the 24-year-old woman from Guernsey are pictured on the houseboat in Srinagar
The postmortem report is still to be officially released but a source at JLNM Hospital, in Rainawari, Srinagar, where the postmortem was carried out said: ‘The victim had 40 injury marks on her body. The cause of death was due to excessive blood loss.
‘All the injury marks were caused with a sharp weapon and no teeth marks or nail scratches were found on the body. There was a deep cut on the neck and a one-inch stab wound on the chest, abdomen and pelvic area.
‘There were three injury marks on the back and marks on the arms. There was no medical evidence to confirm or deny sexual assault.
‘The weapon used was 12 inches long, with a four-inch handle. There was blood on the blade as well as the handle.’
It is believed that Miss Groves travelled to Srinagar two months ago, intending to stay there for just four days. But she decided to remain longer, renting a cabin at the New Beauty houseboat.
Saeed, who manages the houseboat, said that he had entered a relationship with Miss Groves, who he described as ‘amazing’ after they met in Goa, according to The Sunday Telegraph.
He said: ‘I was her boyfriend, maybe we would have married. I loved her more than my life.’
It was reported that police also detained Saeed as they suspect that he might have supplied de Wit with cannabis.
Incident: Sarah Groves was found dead inside a houseboat this morning on the Dal Lake in Srinagar, Kashmir, Indian media have said
Houseboat: An Indian policeman stands outside the house boat New Beauty where the woman was found dead
It has emerged that she posted a message on Facebook that tragically foreshadowed her death.
A friend wrote to her online: ‘Glad you’re finally going on your adventure… Make sure you take care always eh and keep your wits about you.’
Sarah replied: ‘I’ll try my hard-est to keep my wits about me and keep as safe as i can.’
Christina Darmanin, one of Sarah’s closest friends at the £30,240-a-year St Mary’s School Ascot in Berkshire, described her as ‘an angel’.
‘Sarah was the most beautiful person inside and out and would never harm a soul,’ Darmanin said. ‘She would sprinkle her stardust wherever she was and still does.’
Sarah had written a blog called The Bright Side of Life, where she posted uplifting messages such as: ‘When you seek beauty in all people and all things you will not only find it, you will become it.’
In 2012 she climbed Kilimanjaro and raised more than £3,000 for Childreach International.
Sarah, a qualified fitness instructor had gone travelling in Africa and Asia after attending Chelsea College of Art and Design.
It is understood that she was due to fly out to Nepal in three days’ time from Kashmir.
Sarah Groves has allegedly been stabbed to death on a houseboat on Dal Lake, a popular tourist destination
De Wit arrived at the guesthouse three days ago, and was staying at the cabin next to Miss Groves. They were the only two tourists staying on the boat.
A Kashmir police source claimed that on Friday night de Wit smoked a large quantity of cannabis and returned to his cabin after midnight.
He reportedly became paranoid that Miss Groves was going to kill him, then forced his way into her room and allegedly killed her in a frenzied attack with a knife.
The houseboat’s owner and Saeed Shoda’s father, Abdul Rahim Shoda, said that he and his son Irfan discovered Miss Groves’s body at about 2.30am yesterday.
‘I informed the local police station about the incident. Later, I rushed to the tourist police. When I was coming out of the tourist police station, I asked an auto driver whether he has seen any foreigner.’
Owner: One of the sons of the boathouse owner Abdul Rahim Shoda (pictured) is also helping police with the inquiries, although he has not been arrested, according to reports
Shoes: An Indian policeman stands guard on a houseboat near a pair of shoes (left) belonging to Sarah Groves
He added: ‘He told me that he has seen a 7-feet tall foreigner, who was without shoes and in wet clothes, boarding a Jammu-bound vehicle. I took the number of the vehicle from him and handed it over to the police,’ Shoda said.
He said that Irfan heard screams from the houseboat and went to investigate. Irfan, 24, told The Sunday Times the window of the door to her room was broken and Sarah was found with her phone in her hand.
‘Her throat had been cut and she had three stab wounds on her chest. There was blood everywhere,’ he said. ‘In her hand was a phone and her fingers were cut too. She had tried to call us for help and my mother had a missed call.’
Senior police officer Abdul Ghani Mir said: ‘The Dutch national had fled from the houseboat in the night, leaving behind his belongings. He was trying to flee from the valley.’
Tribute: Messages of respect have been paid to Sarah on sites including Twitter
Family: The son of the houseboat owner said Sarah had been enjoying her time with the family
Location: Houseboat owner Abdul Rahim Shoda speaks on his mobile phone near the house boat where the body was found
‘Wonderful girl’: One of the sons of the owner of the houseboat owner described her as ‘a wonderful girl’ who had stayed with on the boat for the last two months
Last month, tougher sentences for sexual offences were introduced in India following a national outcry over the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student in Delhi last year.
Anyone convicted of rape or murder now faces the death penalty.
Since then, two foreign tourists have been attacked.
A Swiss woman was gang-raped last month as she and her husband camped overnight on a cycling holiday in central India.
Days later, a British woman jumped two floors from her hotel room south of Delhi to flee an alleged sexual assault.
Miss Groves is believed to have been born in Manchester and was living in Guernsey.
Her father, Victor, 70, is a retired businessman who ran a string of IT companies in Cheshire before his retirement.
Leave a reply