By IANS,
Panaji : The Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) has approached the Bombay High Court for a letter of request to interrogate two British citizens in connection with the murder of 15-year-old Scarlett Keeling here in Goa.
In a petition filed before the Panaji bench of the Bombay High Court Friday, the investigative agency has said that a letter rogatory, or a formal request, from the court is essential to question victim’s mother Fioan Mackeown and Charles Carter, who had allegedly seen Scarlett sometime before she was found dead on Anjuna beach in February last year.
Both Mackeown and Carter are presently living in Britain.
A letter rogatory is a formal communication sent by a court to a foreign court seeking the latter’s assistance in recording the statements of witnesses residing there.
In March, Goa childrens’ court had the CBI plea for the letter claiming that the agency’s investigation had revealed nothing more than the police probe.
But the CBI has contended that questioning the two witnesses in Britain was imperative to their investigation because both had not responded to the agency’s summons to arrive in India for deposition.
The CBI has interrogated nearly 200 witnesses in connection with the murder after it taking over investigations from a discredited state police team. The police was widely criticised for fouling up the probe.
A sub inspector initially in charge of the investigation was dismissed from service for goofing up the investigation by the police team.
“This is not a fit case to exercise the somewhat extra-ordinary and discretionary powers of this court to issue the letter of request,” chidren’s court president Desmond ‘Costa had said in March.
The questionnaire submitted by the CBI before the children’s court had 30 queries for Fiona and 38 queries for Charles Carter.