Panaji: Police have arrested one of the three persons detained in connection with the death of British teenager Scarlette Keeling . They say more arrests are likely through the night.
Samson D'souza, the person who has been arrested, is a bar tender in Goa’s Anjuna beach area.
Goa IGP Kishan Kumar has confirmed it is a definite case of murder.
“The same person we charged for rape can be charged for murder. He was the last person seen in a compromising position with the girl. Police has got enough evidence to book this man,” he told CNN-IBN.
Sources have told CNN-IBN that the police are tracking seven people who may be connected to her death, four of whom are absconding. The suspects are known to usually loiter around the Anjuna beach area.
The investigations have revealed that Scarlette was partying with these boys at a local shack till 0400 hrs on the fateful day.
Fifteen-year-old Scarlette was found dead under suspicious circumstances on Anjuna beach on February 18.
Police are probing a murder angle after Scarlett's second autopsy was conducted on Saturday. But questions are being raised about the role of the police too.
Goa Medical College sources have told CNN-IBN that they had briefed the Goa police to investigate the death after the first autopsy. But the Goa police did not follow up on the investigation.
The second autopsy was performed after Scarlett's mother Fiona McKeown accused the police of a cover up.
Scarlette’s parents believe the death was not due to drowning as the police claim. They say the injury and other bruises on her body point to a cover up.
Fiona had questioned the first postmortem report that said the teenager had accidentally drowned.
“We think she had her face pushed into the sand because of the amount of the sand that was inside her nose and mouth. But the injuries all over her legs, arms and back are not fatal injuries. Somebody's done that to her before they killed her,” Fiona had said.
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The photographs, which were taken by Fiona shortly after she saw the body on February 18, clearly show a number of bruises and cuts on Scarlette's body.
Even the first autopsy had mentioned the presence of injury marks, but the Goa police did not take the investigation forward.
After intervention of Goa Chief Minister Digamber Kamat, the police had conducted second autopsy on her body which clearly mentioned the possibility of a murder.
The police are clearly under pressure and Goa’s Tourism Minister Mickey Pacheco wrote to the state's Home Minister saying there was foul play involved in Scarlette’s death and asked him and Chief Minister to dismiss the officials who tried to hush up the case.
"Officers with dubious integrity were trying to hush up the case and show it as a case of drowning. My minister has demanded that such officers of dubious integrity should not find a place in the police force in a civilised society. He has urged the CM to dismiss such officers," he said.
A spate of murders in the last few months has already dented Goa's reputation as a safe tourist destination. This latest revelation could make matters worse.
"I have been discussing drug peddling and abuse in certain areas of Goa with the CM and Home Minister. I have asked them for action against those people dealing with drugs and spoiling the image of the state," Pacheco told CNN-IBN on Sunday.
(With agency inputs)
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