Is Indian news media’s missguiding public on the brutal killing of UK citizen Stephn Bennet justified?
LONDON: The family of Stephen Bennett, the British tourist found battered and hung from a tree in a village in Roha near Mumbai, has claimed that the backpacker was abducted from the beach resort where he was staying.
Bennett, 40, had expressed fears for his safety in phone calls home. According to his parents and sister, they tried to alert the authorities in India, but no one responded.
Bennett had travelled to Goa for a two-week winter break. His body, covered with cuts and bruises, was found 200 miles away in a jungle near Roha. His family is at a loss to know how he came to be there, but fear he was abducted in Goa and taken away in a car.
A friend of the family told the Mail , “He rang on December 6, just three days into his holiday, to say he was very worried about two men he had met on the beach. He said they were being smarmy and he was not comfortable with them. They knew that he was on his own and he was worried about going back to his hotel room.’’
“In a later phone call, he said he had been taken against his will. Stephen’s parents could hear two men speaking to him in the background in broken English. They were snapping at him.”
Bennett is the father of two girls aged 11 and eight, who are said to be devastated. He is separated from their mother. An actor-turned-self-employed builder, he was an experienced traveller and had visited Egypt, China and Thailand. He worked as an actor in his 20s, and appeared in a film with Joan Collins and Timothy Spall.
The motive of the abduction is unclear, however. The victim still had $300 cash in his pockets when he was found. Four men have been questioned about the death, but Bennett’s relatives say they are unhappy with the story being put out by police that he was attacked after he began talking to a villager who could not understand him and feared he was going to **** her. ( Daily Mail)
