“I will be asking for Scotland Yard’s help in probing the case,” said Fiona Mackeown on the eve of her departure to London to bury the mortal remains of her 15-year-old daughter, nearly six weeks after she was found dead in mysterious circumstances at Anjuna beach in Goa.
Mackeown has already said she would go in for a third forensic test on Scarlett’s body in the UK after voicing her dissatisfaction over the reports of the first two tests conducted in Goa.
Lawyers for the girl’s family are also calling for a probe by Britain’s premier investigating agency into the Scarlett case. They feel that the agency can provide some excellent forensic help in the homicide case.
In its preliminary report on the teenager’s death, Commission member Nirmala Venkatesh said “police are trying to hide the facts of the case and close it. We will never allow this to happen”.
Venkatesh claimed that Scarlett was injected with morphine. “She was raped by four to five persons by gagging her mouth. There are nail marks on the body and several marks which indicate that more than one person was involved in sexually assaulting her,” she said, adding “Police investigation in this case was completely misleading and evidence in this case was destroyed by the police themselves.”
Fiona said the Commission seemed to be very keen to get justice and it was very reassuring that they were interested in looking into the case. It is really positive thing to go home on,” Fiona added. Venkatesh, during her two-day visit to Goa, went around Anjuna beach and met Fiona and senior police officials investigating the case.
The NCW member said that they would continue to fight for justice and would brief Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on the police attitude in this case.
She clarified that the preliminary report was based on her interaction with the agencies concerned and they would come out with the final report subsequently.