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Man held for UK tourist's death
10/03/2008 11:10 - (SA)
Panaji - Police arrested one man in connection with the death of a 15-year-old British girl whose body was found on a beach in southern India, news reports said on Monday.
Samsung D'Souza, 29, was arrested on Sunday night for allegedly raping Scarlett Keeling hours before her partially clothed and bruised body was found on February 18, senior police official Kishen Kumar told the Press Trust of India.
Keeling was seen the night before at a bar with a group of Indian men, one of whom was identified as D'Souza. An eyewitness told police he saw the suspect in a "compromising position" with Keeling, the report said.
Even if the sex was consensual, Kumar said D'Souza would still be accused of rape because Keeling was a minor. D'Souza was one of three men police held for questioning on Sunday and Kumar said he expected to make more arrests soon.
"The same person we charged for rape can be charged for murder," Kumar told CNN-IBN, a private television news channel. "He was the last person seen in a compromising position with the girl."
Cover-up
Keeling's body was found on Anjuna beach in Goa, a tiny state with a coastline crowded with tourists and resorts. Police initially believed she accidentally drowned because she was drunk, but her family accused the police of a cover-up and pushed for a second post-mortem and further investigation.
"It was our main objective to get the police or somebody to admit that she'd been murdered, as I knew in my heart that she had been," Fiona MacKeown, Keeling's mother, told British Broadcasting Corporation television. "I'm convinced that they were covering it up."
The family also believes that Keeling may have been sexually assaulted.
Senior police official Bosco George said he would conduct an internal inquiry into the investigation.
The second post-mortem also showed that she had drowned, officials said, but doctors identified more bruises on her body and recommended that police investigate the death as a murder.
The case has become a serious embarrassment for local officials.
Keeling had been on vacation in India with her mother, her mother's boyfriend, and her five siblings. Keeling's family was travelling elsewhere in India when she died.
- AP
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