Popular Indian resort state of Goa have launched a murder investigation after the partially naked body of a British teenager was found last month on a beach.The announcement came after doctors conducted a fresh autopsy and concluded 15-year-old Scarlette Keeling was murdered, and did not drown as local police had initially insisted. "We are investigating it as a murder case," senior Goa state police official Kishan Kumar said, after a panel of three doctors conducted a six-hour examination of the body. "There will be detentions now," he said, without providing details, though sources say the owner of a cafe on popular Anjuna beach where Ms Keeling was last seen alive is likely to be questioned. But Mr Kumar denied allegations by Fiona MacKeown, Ms Keeling's mother, that police had initially tried to hush up the murder. "Police never failed in their duty. They were right on the track," said Mr Kumar. Ms MacKeown pointed to the large numbers of bruises on her daughter's body to bolster her call for a second examination after an earlier autopsy concluded the girl drowned in the choppy Arabian Sea. The first autopsy found only five bruises on Ms Keeling's body, but yesterday's examination discovered as many as 50, with at least half of them believed to have been inflicted before she died. Ms MacKeown's lawyer also said the family suspects Ms Keeling may have been sexually assaulted. "When a 15-year-old girl is found with her panties and shorts pulled down by the sea and covered with bruises... there is a possibility of sex assault," Vikram Varma said. The autopsy panel did not confirm rape but said that some of the injuries indicated sexual assault, a Times of India report said overnight.Ms MacKeown welcomed the autopsy findings.
"We have been saying this since day one," she said.
"In my heart I knew that she was murdered."
Mr Varma also alleged police in Anjuna beach hid vital information about the circumstances in which Ms Keeling's body was found.
Local politicians have also queried the police, noting that an officer who initially investigated the case had been suspended for covering up a murder four years ago.
Ms MacKeown, from Devon in southwest England, brought her oldest daughter and five younger siblings to Goa for a six-month stay in November. Ms Keeling's body was found lying on the beach with her clothes partially removed on February 18 while the rest of her family was travelling in the neighbouring state of Karnataka.
Ms MacKeown had wanted her daughter to accompany the rest of the family on the trip, according to Mr Varma, but the two squabbled and Mr Keeling was allowed to remain in Goa. The month before Ms Keeling's death, the Federal Government asked authorities in popular tourist destinations like Goa to review security measures after a spate of highly publicised sexual attacks on foreigners. Goa receives about 400,000 foreign tourists each year.
You Might Also Like :
0 comments:
Post a Comment