'Keenan Santos and Reuben Fernandez fought for the right cause'

For a month before his gruesome murder, Amboli resident Keenan Santos, 24, had casually touched upon the topic of death on least six occasions, recollect his family and friends.

"I don't know why he mentioned death so often then, but now, it seems that he had seen his approaching fate," said Valentine Silveria, his friend.

“Keenan had recently gone to Bom Jesus Church in Goa where the remains of St Francis Xavier are kept in a silver casket. He called his mother and told her that he wanted to die like the saint.”

Priyanka Fernandes, who was with him at the time of the incident on October 21, is upset that during the brawl no one from the crowd came to their help except Mohsin Sheikh, a waiter at the restaurant where the seven friends they had dinner.

“Keenan had met Sheikh just couple of times at the restaurant. But, Sheikh still rushed to our help when he saw the men assaulting Keenan with choppers,” she said.

A Class 12 dropout, Keenan was passionate about bartending. He worked at several high-end pubs, earning more than Rs10,000 a month.

Keenan’s father Valerian is a chief engineer with Parle International Hotel at Vile Parle, and his mother Valeri is a homemaker. Keenan was the eldest of three siblings.

“Keenan use to tell me that he would become a big man one day. He has indeed become a big man as he fought for others and died,” said Valeri, trying to hold back her tears.

Keenan's cousin Jason Temasfieldt recollected: "We were in class 8, when Keenan told me that I should always stand for what is right, only then he would call me his brother. Keenan died fighting for what he believed in.”

Keenan and his other friends had also tipped-off the police about the circulation of pirated film CDs three years ago. And two years ago, he had acted as decoy and helped the police during their raid on a Juhu pub. More than 240 youngsters were allegedly caught with drugs during the raid.

Reuben Fernandez's friends, too, remember him as a fitness freak and who was always ready to fight for any “right cause”.

“He was very passionate about his country. He had gathered residents to join the protest march against corruption from Juhu to Bandra. He knew the Lokpal Bill by heart," said his brother Benjamin, an investment banker.

“I am not surprised that he jumped into the fight against eve-teasing,” said Reuben's friend Neil Shah, an assistant director with film-maker David Dhawan.