A man was arrested on Sunday in connection with the death of a teenaged British girl, whose bruised body was found dead on a beach here.
PANAJI: A man was arrested on Sunday in connection with the death of a teenaged British girl, whose bruised body was found dead on a beach here, and Goa police filed a case of murder following a second autopsy on her body.
The second autopsy conducted this weekend on the body of 15-year-old Scarlette Eden Keeling concluded she was murdered and did not drown as police had initially insisted.
"We have arrested one person and more arrests will be made soon," Inspector General of Police Kishan Kumar said.
"The person arrested has been identified as Samsung D'Souza, 29. He has been arrested on rape charge because he was seen in compromising position with the British girl a little before she was found dead," IGP Kishen Kumar said.
"As per law, no one can have sex with a minor girl and even if done with her consent, it amounts to rape," he added.
The state police earlier in the day had detained three persons in the connection of murder Scarlette.
While police had throughout maintained that the case was that of accidental death, a second autopsy report has changed the course of investigation with police registering the death as murder.
Scarlette was found dead on Goa's popular Anjuna Beach on February 18 in semi-nude condition. Her family members suspect that she was raped and murdered.
After the media focus and political lobbying, the state government had ordered a second autopsy which recommended that the death to be investigated as "murder."
The second autopsy into the death of the girl showed she had received over 50 bruises, as against the first autopsy report which showed five bruises on her body. The second autopsy showed half of the 50-odd bruises the girl had on her body were ante-mortem.
"We have registered the case under 302 of IPC which means we are probing her death as a murder," North Goa Superintendent of Police Bosco George said.
George, along with the team officials including investigating officer Braz Menezes, rounded up three suspects in the afternoon.
The police are on look out for four more persons who were seen with the deceased girl a few hours before her death.
A shack owner, at whose outlet Scarlette was partying along with other boys on the fateful night, was interrogated by the police, police sources said.
Police said they are probing in detail and will link the whole sequence leading to Scarlette's death.
IGP Kishan Kumar said the investigations were carried out based on the first autopsy report. "Why did the doctors not then tell the police about the bruises and possibility of homicide," Kumar shot back replying to a question during a press conference this afternoon.
The IGP, however, could reply as to why the case was shifted from one officer to another if investigations were on proper track. "I don't know anything about it. I was on leave and joined just two days back," Kumar said.
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