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Goa cops probed over murder
11/03/2008 21:31 - (SA)
Panaji - The leader of the Indian resort state of Goa promised on Tuesday to investigate allegations of local police incompetence made by the mother of a British teen found dead there last month.
Goa police at first said that 15-year-old Scarlett Keeling, whose bruised, partially undressed corpse was found on popular Anjuna beach just hours after she was seen at a nearby bar, had drowned.
A first post-mortem found only five bruises on Keeling's body, but a second examination on Saturday discovered as many as 50, with at least half of them believed to have been inflicted before she died.
"There have been several allegations against the conduct of Anjuna police station officers," Chief Minister Digambar Kamat told AFP.
"We will look into all of them to find out whether there was a delay, mistake or laxity on the part of the officers."
One policeman, who was involved in the early stages of the investigation, has been stripped of his authority, police said on Monday.
Murder investigation
Police opened a murder investigation into Keeling's death on Sunday - three weeks after she died.
The move came after the second post-mortem was conducted at the insistence of Keeling's mother, Fiona MacKeown, who said she suspected her daughter was sexually assaulted and murdered.
Local police on Sunday arrested 29-year-old Samson D'Souza, a bartender at the beach cafe where Keeling was last seen alive.
An unidentified witness told police that D'Souza was seen in "a compromising position" with Keeling hours before her body was discovered a short distance from the cafe.
Keeling was believed to be high at the time on a drug cocktail of LSD, Ecstasy and cocaine, according to witness reports.
Because Keeling was a minor, police have charged D'Souza with statutory rape - but not murder.
The bartender, who can be held by police for the next two weeks, has told a court that Keeling was still alive when he left her at approximately 05:15 the day she died, a police officer who did not want to be identified told AFP.
Investigation 'a farce'
MacKeown believes the police have tried to stall a proper investigation from taking place and says she has no faith left in them.
"It's been a farce from the beginning," said the 43-year-old, who came to Goa from Devon in southwest England in November with seven of her nine children for a six-month stay.
MacKeown and the rest of the family were travelling in neighbouring Karnataka state when the killing took place. Keeling had remained in Goa at the home of a 21-year-old local man.
Kamat defended the work of his force and said there was no need for federal crime agents to step in, as MacKeown has demanded. The politician also accused MacKeown of negligence.
"The mother should have taken care of the child since she was a minor," he said.
"She left a minor girl in someone else's custody. Tourists should be more responsible and careful."
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