Goa artist

“An eyewitness has told us that Jana fell while scaling the wall of the house and got head injuries. We are investigating the cause of his death, which could be known once the postmortem report comes.”

Mody’s neighbours told the police that she “was struck several times” during the attack at around 11.30am on Sunday. A person claiming to have witnessed the incident said that Jana asked Mody to meet him in a shed in her garden in the morning. A CCTV footage from outside the residence showed him assaulting Mody, the witness was quoted by the police as saying.

The police said there would be frequent arguments between Mody and her gardener over the upkeep of the garden located in the studio. They said Jana resided in an outhouse on the premises. While Mody was found dead at her residence, the gardener’s body was picked from a lane outside the property.

“For now, we have an eyewitness who saw a bleeding Jana trying to run. He told the witness ‘take care of her, I will be okay’ as he pointed toward the house. We are recording that as the last statement from Jana,” Jaspal Singh, an investigator in the case, said. The police have recorded the statements of Mody’s family members and neighbours who witnessed the commotion on Sunday morning.

A website that appears to detail the works by Mody, who holds an Overseas Citizen Of India card, says she was a commercial artist and her themes were intensely local with a focus on tropical sunlight and shadow. They generally portray large-format acrylic-on-canvas depictions of Goa’s life and landscape, it adds.

Mody is survived by a daughter, Saffron Wiehl, who is an illustrator. Wiehl shared the Arpora studio with her 65-year-old mother. She was not at home at the time of the incident, police said.