Cops, NCW spar over Scarlett case

Cops, NCW spar over Scarlett case
Preetu Nair | TNN

Panaji: Even as the Goa police said that they had issued summons to the two members of the National Commission for Women who had visited Goa to investigate the alleged rape and murder of Scarlett, NCW member Nirmala Venkatesh said that the police have no power to summon the Commission.
The police had summoned the two NCW members, who after visiting Scarlett's mother Fiona Mackeown and going through Scarlett's photos clicked soon after her death, had announced to the media that the brutal crime of rape and murder was committed by more than three men. IGP Kishan Kumar confirmed that summons were issued to them.
Since Venkatesh had told mediapersons that "while one man probably injected morphine into her back, another man tried to silence her, the third man squeezed her and the fourth man must have raped her and then drowned her in water," the police had summoned them.
However Venkatesh denied receipt of any summons from the police. "NCW's implementing machinery is the police. How can the police issue summons to the Commission? Before we left Goa, we had met the Goa police and discussed everything with them."
Venkatesh added, "Our final report on Scarlett case is ready and we would soon release it."
CFSL report surprises forensic doctors
Panaji: Along with Scarlett's swabs, the police had sent to Hyderabad's CFSL, samples of sea water, pieces of Scarlett's lungs and liver. "They were subjected to acid digestion and subsequent microscopic examinations, and no diatoms (micro-organisms found in water) could be detected in them," added the top police official.
The absence of diatoms in all three samples has surprised the forensic doctors at Goa Medical College. "In all types of water, diatom is present and this test is done to see if the place of death differs from the place from where the body was found.
"However, the statement that no diatom could be detected in the samples of sea water, lungs and liver is misleading," added a forensic doctor.

June 5,2008, The Times of India, Goa editi