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New Delhi/PanajI: Indian police have arrested a second suspect in connection with the rape and murder of a 15-year-old British girl in Goa last month, but her mother said the investigation was turning out to be a "farce".
Indian authorities originally said that Scarlett Keeling appeared to have drowned after taking drugs. Later they said a second autopsy revealed injuries that indicated murder, but were still unsure how she died.
"There is a clear nexus between criminals and officers of the Goa police," Fiona MacKeown, mother of Keeling, said.
Police arrested the second man, Placido Carvalho, late on Wednesday and also suspended the original investigating officer of the case, as media criticism mounted on Goa police.
"He has been arrested. He was one of the accomplices in the rape and murder and we are investigating his role," Bosco Jorge, a senior police officer, said from Goa.
"Carvalho, who has been charged with rape and murder, had provided Scarlett with drugs the night of the incident and due to drug overdose Scarlett died," said Goa police Inspector General Kishen Kumar.
Carvalho is the second person to have been arrested in the case. Samson D'Souza, reported to be a barman in a beach shack, was arrested earlier this week, suspected of rape. "They have arrested two low-level persons and I hope the media and the government of India investigates and gets to the bottom of these really," MacKeown said.
Appeal
MacKeown has written to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking his intervention, as she feels the case has weakened, with the police sitting on vital medical tests for weeks to confirm the presence of drugs in Keeling's body.
"I think they are playing a part for these guys to walk out. I think these guys will be released and it will be another farcical case where nobody gets charged for it," she said.
MacKeown had always maintained her daughter was drugged, raped and murdered, and has accused the police of covering up the real circumstances of her death. The autopsy revealed bruises all over Keeling's body, that her mouth was stuffed with sand and she did not have enough saltwater in her lungs to indicate drowning. Indian media said there may have been an initial attempt to play down the death to protect the state's tourism industry.
Keeling's case is the latest to highlight the safety of tourists in India. Tourism officials met this year to discuss attacks on tourists after at least seven foreign women and girls said they had been raped or molested.
MacKeown said many past deaths have not been properly investigated.
"It is not the death of one girl, but so many, many of these cases that has been hushed up," MacKeown added. After claiming to have "nearly cracked" the case, the police also started an inquiry against the original investigating officer after the doctor who conducted the first autopsy on Keeling claimed that the police had ignored his finding that she could have been murdered.
They have arrested two low-level persons and I hope the media and the government of India investigates and gets to the bottom of these really, " said Fiona MacKeown the victims mother.
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