The parents of the Delhi-based couple demanded a CBI inquiry into the deaths at a press conference in New Delhi yesterday. The couple were on their honeymoon.

Goa police officials say the couple checked into Hotel Seema, Ribandar, near Panjim on the morning of February 26, 1999. Soon afterwards, they telephoned the local head office of the Union Bank of India and obtained a car with driver for sightseeing.

The room in which they were staying was reserved for the visitors of Union Bank of India. Their names were forwarded by Vikas' uncle A C Duggal, who is the general manager in the Mumbai branch of the bank.

The couple returned to the hotel at 9.30 pm that day for dinner, according to the manager of the hotel, Manoj Anand. Later that evening, telephone calls were made from their rooms toDelhi, Bangalore and Mumbai. The following day, February 27, the car from the bank arrived a little after noon to pick up the couple. That was the last time Vikas Nanda was seen alive by the hotel staff.

Police officials who interrogated the driver of the car say that he took the couple to Vagator beach in North Goa. While the driver waited by the road on top of the hill, the couple went to the beach below.

``Soon afterwards, Vikas went up to the driver and asked him to return, saying they had met some friends from Delhi,'' said a police official.

A little before midnight on the same day, Priya returned to Hotel Seema to retrieve her baggage accompanied by a man in his forties. When she decided to check out, hotel employees wanted to know if the couple had any complaints. ``She, however, told us that she wanted to go with some people from Delhi,'' said Anand.

According to Anand, Priya's companion was a fair, well-built man in his late thirties or early forties. Police officials say Vikas' body wasfound at Colva beach just after midnight, while Priya's body was found at Vagator Beach on the morning of February 28.

The police were able to piece together the movement of the couple till 5.30 pm on February 27. What happened between then and 11.30 pm that night when Priya returned to the hotel, and later, remains a mystery to the police. The preliminary results of the autopsies indicate that they were forcibly drowned in shallow waters, say police. The tell-tale evidence was the presence of sand in their lungs.

Incidentally, two autopsies were performed on Priya. Detailed evidence will be available in the analysis of the couple's viscera, that has been sent to Hyderabad.

Police say the investigation has been hampered as all the clothes and jewellery belonging to the couple are still missing.

``We have very little clues to go about it,'' said the police. Incidentally, a shake up in the police department resulted in the transfer of the police officials who began the investigations.