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I will never dare to holiday in Goa again, claimed Scarlett Keeling’s mother

The case of Scarlett Keeling, 15, who was found dead on Anjuna beach in North Goa on February 18, 2008, is still lingering in the
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The case of Scarlett Keeling, 15, who was found dead on Anjuna beach in North Goa on February 18, 2008, is still lingering in the courts for almost 8 years without any outcome. The case was handed over to the CBI in the year 2010 with two accused who are out on the bail facing trial and 35 witnesses have been examined by the court to date. The British national Fiona Mackowen, mother of Scarlett says that she would never dare to step into Goa again for the holiday. Why is she saying that? Read the complete report here.

[su_expand more_text=”READ MORE” less_text=” ” height=”0″ hide_less=”yes” link_style=”button” link_align=”center”]Goa is famous amongst the tourists for its pristine beaches but it has also become infamous for various criminal activities that are taking place against the tourists. The Scarlett Keeling murder case is one of the most talked about in that. According to the PTI, The following statement is made by Scarlett’s mother while talking to PTI. “I won’t feel like coming on a holiday now. I am not feeling safe at this moment. Maybe other parts of India, I can visit. It is because of the case is here, and initially state government tried to hush-up the case…I would probably come for a holiday, not in Goa but somewhere else in India,” Fiona told PTI.

Eight years passed but Fiona feels that she did not get the justice yet. She is highly paranoid about visiting the state again for the holiday although, she did not rule out visiting the other tourist destinations in India. Fiona is in Goa for the final arguments on the charge sheet filed in the Scarlett case before the children’s court in Panaji.

According to the sources, the final arguments will be heard this week. According to the charge sheet, two locals, Palacio Carvalho and Samson Fernandes were charged for drugging and leaving the British teenager to die on Anjuna beach in the year 2008. The police had recovered the semi-nude and bruised body from the shore.

This case became one of the biggest controversial issues on the international level since Britishers were the largest in numbers to visit Goa then. According to the sources, Fiona is hoping for the justice this time although it is delayed which will be done by the court after the final arguments this week. “I do hope that justice would be done. I would ideally expect that both of them (the accused) would be charged with murder because I believe she was murdered, but the charges that they have imposed of culpable homicide still is a good enough punishment,” she said.

The case, initially investigated by state police, was later handed over to CBI on repeated pleas made by Scarlett’s family. Fiona said the hardest thing for her was the way the government treated this case. “They made it lot more dramatic. They didn’t treat it properly, they should have treated it as a murder straight away before the evidence was destroyed,” she said.

Fiona accused the previous government of supporting police to hush up the case initially. “It is not just initially, but they carried it on until we demanded the second autopsy. If that had not happened, they would have kept it as an accident. I was very lucky to come across Vikram Varma (Supreme Court lawyer who campaigned for justice to Scarlett). I had no idea about the law in India. “Other people who have landed here in Goa and died, their families are desperate…There is no justice of any kind, they don’t even have FIR filed. So that way I considered myself as lucky,” she added.

Fiona feels things were expected to be different in Goa after the new government took over in 2012. “The government has changed now, and I do think it’s different. I don’t think this government is same as the last government, particularly the Congress government that was very corrupt. I don’t have any dealing with this government over this case but the way case is preceding in court, I don’t feel that this government is trying to cover up. It’s decision of the court that will decide whether this government really diverted its energy to give justice or not. I feel like, I have to trust this government. I could not just believe that I am not going to get anything,” Fiona said.

On the inability of the prosecution to ensure deposition of the crucial eyewitness Michael Mannion, a British national, Fiona said the prosecution really messed up to coordinate with him due to which his statement could not be recorded in court. “I tried to get hold of him (Mannion) before I came here. But I could not get hold of him. He did not even answer my calls or messages. I feel hopefully there would be some contact made and he might still be able to depose,” she said. Fiona said the “kind of comfort and sense of security” which needs to be provided by the prosecution to an eyewitness was not there. “They (prosecution) arm-twisted him (Mannion). He was sent summons through Scotland Yard. Without his knowledge, they fixed a date for video conferencing. It was really a very bad mess up while coordinating with him,” she said.

In his statement to police earlier, Mannion had claimed that he had seen Scarlett being sexually abused by one of the accused. Fiona, a farmer back home in the UK, said her family still remembers Scarlett and a garden has been created in a corner of her four-and-a-half acres of land which she owns in North Devon (UK).  “Life without Scarlett has been very difficult. We still miss her. My children still talk about her,” she said.

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