Suraj Nalimoothoo, a violent and manipulative man, has been arrested for the murder of his wife. His past is marked by numerous complaints of domestic violence, scams and cyberharassment. However, he continued to operate, with complete impunity, it seems.
Suraj Nalimoothoo, 49, arrested on December 26 for the murder of his wife, Priscilla Vencanah, is not unknown to the police. Complaints for fraud, sextortion and domestic violence punctuate his career. Despite this history, he continued to act with impunity, leaving behind a trail of broken and traumatized victims.
The story of his victims is chilling. Sunita, 41, is one of them. At the beginning of 2021, she broke the silence, publicly denouncing the humiliations and degrading acts she suffered. The breaking point comes when he releases three videos of their sexual encounters on social media; a “revenge” motivated by the decision of the forty-year-old to break up with him.
Sunita then files a complaint for sexual abuse, domestic violence and Breach of ICT Act against her lover. Suraj Nalimoothoo hits back. Using fake accounts, he posts photos of Sunita’s entire family, with crude and offensive comments on social media.
Sunita’s father, aged 69, files a complaint against him with the police of Brisée-Verdière for death threats and Breach of ICT Act. “This man has turned our lives into a real nightmare. My heart hurts that he killed his wife. He was saying that his big contact in the police would not be able to do anything for him. He did not hesitate to go live on TikTok, quoting my name and Sunita’s name, with live threats, and the police never did anything,” the sexagenarian laments. In all, Sunita’s relatives filed seven complaints against Suraj Nalimoothoo.
He was like a predator. Once he had stripped a woman of everything she had, he would move on to the next one.
Suraj Nalimoothoo’s modus operandi was simple, but effective: he manipulated his victims into debt, then threatened them with intimate photos to keep them under his influence. One of his former companions, on condition of anonymity, reveals that he manipulated her so that she took out bank loans and purchased products on credit. “He told me it was to build our future together. Then, once I signed the documents, his behavior changed dramatically. He became distant and aggressive, then started threatening me with intimate photos he had taken,” she confides in a trembling voice.
A modus operandi that he would have repeated with other women. “He was like a predator. Once he had stripped a woman of everything she had, he would move on to the next one,” explains another of his ex-partners. Very often, his victims, paralyzed by shame and fear, remained silent. Others found the courage to file complaints, but their calls for help went unanswered.
That’s not all. Behind his Casanova facade, Suraj Nalimoothoo hides an explosive temperament. Several of his former companions describe episodes of uncontrollable anger. “He hit me for insignificant things, as if I was a doll,” attests another victim.
This outburst of violence reached its peak when on the night of Monday December 23 to Tuesday December 24, Suraj Nalimoothoo killed his wife, Priscilla Vencanah, 47 years old. The latter’s lifeless and bloody body was found in the early hours in the garage of the Vencanah family home, on rue La Reine, Stanley. Suraj Nalimoothoo attacked her, stabbing her several times in the face.
Thursday December 26, Suraj Nalimoothoo handed himself in to the Montagne-Blanche police. He was then handed over to the Major Crime Investigation Team (MCIT), which was handling the case, and taken into custody. The next morning, he was provisionally charged in Rose Hill court.
Why were the numerous complaints against Suraj Nalimoothoo unsuccessful? These questions haunt the relatives of the deceased and her former victims. In a final burst of courage, one of them says: “We can’t bring this woman back to life, but we can make sure Suraj never hurts anyone again.” Justice must be done, for her, for us, and for all the others who suffered in silence. »
Serial scams
Suraj Nalimoothoo’s former victims are unanimous: the murder of Priscilla Vencanah was not a crime of passion, but an act motivated by money. “We all tried to alert the authorities, but no one seemed to listen to us. If someone had acted, Priscilla Vencanah would still be here today,” they exclaim.
A true chameleon, Suraj Nalimoothoo presented himself sometimes as a former officer of the Criminal Investigation Division, sometimes as a businessman in the import of gold, and even a field broker, thus gaining the trust of his victims, all by multiplying scams with cold determination.
A resident of Port-Louis, aged 35, married and mother, paid the price. In 2022, she accused him of defrauding her. It all started when she met Suraj Nalimoothoo on Facebook. He introduced himself as a broker and offered to help sell land belonging to his father.
To convince her, he introduced her to a so-called colleague, supposedly an expert in legal procedures. In July 2022, on the promise that “all the papers would be in order”, she paid Rs 70,000 for administrative costs. But since then, no formalities have been completed. Suraj Nalimoothoo disappeared, making excuses and avoiding contact. When she threatened to sue, he used compromising screenshots of their private exchanges to try to discredit and silence her.
Still in 2022, it was Vilasha, married and living in the north, who was the victim of a scam orchestrated by Suraj Nalimoothoo. In January 2022, she had invested Rs 200,000 in a commercial operation, via a trusted woman. After six weeks, she had received Rs 35,000 in return and a promise of new products to sell.
Subsequently, Suraj Nalimoothoo, who introduced himself as a distributor, convinced her to invest Rs 200,000 more, promising that he would go to Dubai for business related to gold and jewelry. . A receipt was issued, and, after three months, he gave her Rs 200,000.
However, ten days later he became unreachable. When the two women tried to confront him, he began to harass and threaten the entrepreneur, falsely accusing her of having a relationship with him. He claimed connections with the CID and a man with a long criminal record, to intimidate his victims, even going so far as to mention death threats.
Social networks
Suraj Nalimoothoo is also said to be an active scammer on Facebook. Razia, a 38-year-old mother, knows something about this. He allegedly approached her on the social network claiming that his son-in-law, specialized in aluminum, was offering advantageous prices. Convinced, the thirty-year-old gave him Rs 25,000, but never received the materials.
“When I asked him to return my money, he started harassing and threatening me. At the beginning of 2023, I went to file a complaint for fraud at the Saint-Pierre station. The authorities never intervened and the case remained closed, because Suraj knows the police officers in this region well,” says Razia.
TikTok is also a conducive ground for scams for Suraj Nalimoothoo. Among his victims, Varsha, 32, a hairdresser in Petite-Julie, was allegedly scammed of Rs 72,000. She confides: “My house was under renovation, I bought furniture and he said he would keep it eat it. Then he won’t return my furniture. He starts threatening me and making false comments about me and my family on social media. »
Suraj Nalimoothoo, she adds, has posted numerous messages on TikTok damaging his reputation and his family. In December 2022, she filed two Breach of ICT Act complaints after the circulation of defamatory posts, including photo montages associating her with crimes linked to Suraj Nalimoothoo.
