By IANS
Panaji : The Goa police Thursday claimed that British teenager Scarlette Keeling died due to a drug overdose, arrested the man suspected of giving her the drugs and charged him with rape and murder.
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 Scarlette claimed that the police had ignored his finding that she could have been murdered.
Bartender and alleged drug dealer Placido Carvalho was arrested Wednesday night, said Inspector General of Goa police Kishen Kumar.
“Carvalho, who has been charged with rape and murder, had provided Scarlette with drugs the night of the incident and due to drug overdose Scarlette died,” Kumar told IANS. The police have said earlier the drugs were a cocktail that included LSD and ecstasy.
Carvalho’s arrest came two days after Samson D’Souza, a 28-year-old bartender at a shack on Goa’s famous Anjuna beach, was arrested on the charges of raping Scarlett.
D’Souza was nabbed after a witness claimed to have seen him in a “compromising position” with the victim just two hours before Scarlette’s body was found on the beach Feb 18.
Kumar said D’Souza’s confession led to the arrest of Carvalho. Both work at the same bar.
“The first arrested accused D’Souza has confessed to his role and has also named four others involved in the murder,” Kumar said.
The others named by D’Souza would be arrested after evidence against them was established, Kumar said.
Meanwhile, the original investigating officer in the case Nerlon Albuquerque faces an inquiry after a doctor’s allegations that the police ignored his findings.
The doctor had claimed that he had informed Lakshya Amonkar, a subordinate of Albuquerque, that the manner in which Scarlette had died revealed that there were high chances of homicide.
“The inquiry was initiated against Albuquerque after a senior doctor claimed that the police had ignored his findings in the first autopsy report,” said Kumar.
The police are also planning to charge Scarlette’s mother Fiona MacKeown with neglect for leaving her daughter alone in Goa.
Fiona has written a letter to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking the takeover of the case by the Central Bureau of Investigation. She has also approached the British High Commission for help.