Scarlett case: NCW slams Goa police

Scarlett case: NCW slams Goa police

Cops Accused Of Misleading The Probe, Tampering With And Destroying Evidence
Preetu Nair | TNN

Panaji: In a major embarrassment to the Digambar Kamat-led Goa government, the National Commission for Women (NCW) has said the Goa cops’ investigations into the rape and murder of Scarlett Keeling are “completely misleading’’.
“From the beginning, the police have destroyed evidence. They have spoiled the case and there are big lapses in the investigation. The police officers we met have accepted that there are lapses,’’ said commission member Nirmala Venkatesh in Panaji on Sunday.
After meeting Goa IGP Kishan Kumar, North Goa SP Bosco George and investigating officer Braz Menezes, the two-member NCW team said it would write to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and home minister Shivraj Patil to keep a watch on the Goa police’s probe.
The NCW members suspected foul play by cops as an important piece of evidence—Lui Cafe, a temporary shack where Scarlett spent her last moments—had been removed.
“It is shocking that the most important evidence has been destroyed. The cops should have safeguarded it for the sake of the investigation. This shows that the police want to destroy evidence and destroy the case purposefully, maybe to serve some vested interests,’’ said Venkatesh. The NCW members also questioned the authenticity of the viscera report from the forensic laboratory at Kalina in Mumbai. “The viscera was sent for examination by the Goa cops after a month. Prima facie, it seems that it has been tampered with,’’ said another NCW member Sweety Sood.
After going through Scarlett’s photographs taken soon after her body was found on Anjuna beach in the morning of February 18, Venkatesh said: “After going through the photographs, we have come to the conclusion that a brutal crime was committed by more than three men. While one man probably injected morphine into her back, another tried to silence her, the third held her and the fourth must have raped her and then drowned her.’’ The members, however, said they would discuss the matter with forensic experts. “The Goa police want to close the case, but we will never allow that to happen,’’ Venkatesh said.
Meanwhile, Scarlett’s mother Fiona said on Sunday that she will seek the help of Britain’s Scotland Yard in probing the case once she returns to the UK with her daughter’s body.
“I will be asking for the Scotland Yard’s help in probing the case,” said Fiona on the eve of her departure to London.

2008 Mar 31 Times Of India Mumbai