Goa police question mother of dead British teenager

Posted 03 16 2008 10:27AM

PANAJI, India (AFP) - The mother of a British teenager raped and killed in India's Goa state was questioned by detectives Saturday about her claims of a cover-up involving drug lords, top police and politicians.

Fiona MacKeown, whose eldest daughter Scarlett Keeling, 15, was found dead on Goa's popular Anjuna beach on February 18, was questioned as a witness and not as a suspect, Goa police superintendent Bosco George told AFP.

"We'd called her to record her statement as it's important for us in this case. We wanted to clarify and know several things, especially because she had raised several doubts about the police investigation," George said.

Meanwhile, Goa's home minister Ravi Naik, who MacKeown has angrily accused of having links with drug dealers, dismissed her comments as "foolish" and demanded a probe into "her background and source of income."

"Goa police have thoroughly probed the case and booked the people (responsible)," Naik said. "How can she charge us of having nexus with the drug traders?"

Police officer George denied media reports that MacKeown had been charged with negligence for leaving her daughter with strangers in Goa while she holidayed with her other children in neighbouring Karnataka state.

Keeling had remained in Goa, a former Portuguese colony, at the home of a 21-year-old local man.

Police on Thursday arrested a local barman Samson D'Souza, 29, and alleged drug dealer, Placido Carvalho, as prime suspects in Keeling's death.

Keeling was fed a lethal cocktail of drugs, raped and left on the beach where she was found dead.

When her bruised and partially naked body was found, police at first said she had drowned in the Arabian Sea.

But a second autopsy demanded by MacKeown prompted police to launch a murder probe after as many as 50 injuries were found on her body.

"Goa is a beautiful place and I love Goans," MacKeown said, adding the incident had "brought shame" to India.

"To my mind good people don't deserve an environment controlled by a drug mafia under the protection of a few corrupt police officers and politicians," she said.