French tourist was drugged, sexually abused

NEW DELHI: More than a month after a 34-year-old French woman was found dead at a Paharganj hotel room, police have learnt that a Kashmiri handicrafts dealer, who was arrested in the case, had given her excessive cocaine while denying her food and repeatedly had sex while she was under the drug’s influence. The victim, Laurine, died of drug overdose. Police have sent her viscera sample and vaginal swab for forensic examination. The accused, Manzoor Ahmed, who has a shop in Paharganj, is likely to be booked for rape as well after the reports come in, they said. According to Manzoor’s confession statement, exclusively accessed by TOI, he used to target foreign women – mostly from Italy, Germany, France and New Zealand – who visited his shop in Paharganj, befriended them, offered drugs and then had sex with them. “I killed her by giving her excessive drugs, cigarettes and then having sex with her. I did not even let her go for lunch,” said Manzoor, in his late 30s, in the confession. The decomposed body of Laurine alias Laura, who came from France on March 19 this year, was found in the room number 203 of Hindustan International Deluxe in Paharganj on April 4. She was last seen with Manzoor, who runs a shop, Lotus Creations. The room was also booked in Manzoor’s name. Laurine had been staying at Hare Rama guest house in the area. The hotel staff broke into the room and found the body after it had started stinking. The body was hidden under the double bed. There were empty beer bottles in the room and traces of drugs.Manzoor, whose parents, wife and two children live in Srinagar, met Laurine first at his shop around 3.30pm on April 1 when she came there looking for artificial jewellery. “I wanted her to be with me so I made a plan to meet her in the evening. I took her to Hindustan hotel at 8pm, where I had kept six-seven beer bottles in advance along with four-five small pouches of drugs,” he said in his confession. Police said the drug was found to be cocaine. Manzoor told the cops that he used to procure the drug from a Kashmiri youth, Jafar, every Thursday near Kashmere Gate ISBT. “This drug makes one feel like having sex,” he said in the confession. In the room, the accused gave her beer and cocaine. “When she became uncontrollable, I had sex with her several times,” Manzoor confessed, adding that he also kept two-three pouches in Laurine’s bag as a gift. “The next day (April 2), when we woke up around 10am, we had beer and I forced her to snort drugs again. Around 3pm, I went for lunch and when I came back, she was lying on the bed and breathing very fast,” says the statement. Moments later, Laurine died. The accused hid the body under the bed and stayed in the hotel room on April 3. But when the body started to smell, he took her belongings at about 7.30am on April 4 and fled to Kashmir. He was arrested from Srinagar two days after the body was found. Manzoor, who has been running a handicrafts shop in Paharganj for 18-20 years said in his disclosure that he had several foreigner women friends. Several of them had stayed in his houseboat in Srinagar too, the police said. Officials said his confessional statement would be part of the chargesheet which will be filed soon. Additional Commissioner of Police (Central) Devesh Chandra Srivastava said, "We are waiting for forensic reports before filing the chargesheet."