TWO suspects who have appeared in court charged with the murder of a Scot at her home in Mauritius have denied involvement and provided DNA samples to help prove their case.
Ravish Rao Fakoo and Kamlesh Mansingh appeared in court in Port-Louis for their provisional indictment over the killing of Janice Farman, 47, from Clydebank.
It is she was smothered by thieves, while her young son was in the house, stole jewellery and money then drove away in her Nissan Tiida car.
The suspect identified as Ravish Rao Fakoo and his friend Kamlesh Mansingh, both aged 25 and living in Palma, who have been interviewed submitted fingerprints and genetic data for a DNA test which will be compared to samples from the crime scene.
Police are understood to be tracking a third suspect who was said to be very close to the two.
Investigators discovered that Ms Farman used to have three regular guests at her house including the two suspects arrested.
The island's Major Crime Investigation Team (MCIT) and the Western Division's Criminal Investigation Division (CID) believe there is a link to a gang who are suspected of violent robberies across the island.
It has further emerged that police had found no traces of forced entry, indicating that Ms Farman may have known her attackers.
Ms Farman's dog also was no believed to have bark, suggesting that the animal was comfortable with the men.
It further emerged that relatives and friends of the victim will be asked will be solicited to confirm the suspects were guests at Ms Farman's home in the Albion area of the island.
A Mauritius Police Force spokesman said on Tuesday: "Yesterday, the police arrested two suspects, both of them are men aged 25.
"They did appear in court today and were charged with murder.
"They have been remanded until Tuesday next week when they will appear in court and do not make a plea at this stage."
The arrests came after the Prime Minister of Mauritius urged police to mount a thorough hunt for raiders who “assassinated” the Scot.
Pravind Jugnauth said: “I am very concerned and have asked police to carry out a thorough investigation.
“We need to know who would have committed an assassination like this.”
Police were called to the property at Albion on the Indian Ocean island at about 1am on Friday and found Ms Farman’s body in her bed.
Officers also found her 10-year-old adopted son in the property and have passed him into the care of the child development unit.
The boy has reportedly told the investigators that three hooded and armed men attacked his mother. The boy, who suffers from autism, is said to have been able to recognise the voice of one of the criminals.
Mrs Farman's mother was expected to shortly begin proceedings to repatriate the body of the victim. She arrived in the country on Saturday.
On Friday, a post-mortem examination confirmed that she died as a result of "asphyxia due to compression of the neck".
Mrs Farman moved to Mauritius 13 years ago taking a job as the managing director of PECS Data Services.
Her estranged husband Jean-Baptiste Moutou told local media that she had been robbed two weeks ago and wanted to return to the UK.
He said: "She said everything was fine but she wanted to leave Mauritius. She wanted to return to Scotland.
"She asked for my help in initiating proceedings."
Mrs Farman's maid, Priya, said she saw last saw her on Thursday morning when she left home to go to work."
She added that Mrs Farman's laptop had been stolen two weeks before the drama. A complaint was filed with the police station.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article