SURAJ NANDREKAR

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PANJIM: Stating that the deaths of foreign tourists is tarnishing Goa’s image worldwide, the mother of Finnish youth Felix Dahl alleged that Goa Police is covering up murder cases of tourists.

In a letter addressed to Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant, Dr Minna Pirhonnen, mother of Dahl, whose body was found in Patnem, Canacona, almost five years ago, says there is systematic injustice and human rights violation taking place in Goa.

Canacona police had claimed that Dahl had died after he obtained five wounds on the back of his head and a broken skull while doing acrobatics alone on a silent sandy road in the middle of the night.

The explanation was accepted by the court. However, after his mother’s petition in the High Court, wherein Canacona police was accused of biased and faulty investigation as they refused to make a FIR and deliberately overlooked the possibility of assault and murder, the High Court transferred the investigation to CBI.

The mother says that the main suspect in Felix’s case is a violent Goan citizen who has attacked locals and tourists, and at the moment is in a Canacona court for attacking a police officer.

“According to the common sense, his interrogation along with the friends who went out with Felix that fatal night should be the first priority of CBI. However, when CBI applied permission from Canacona court to perform polygraph and narco tests on the Goans who were in touch with Felix Dahl during his last moments in life, that has been denied by the court,” she said.

She further alleged that when tourists die in Goa, the autopsy is neither photographed nor videographed to make it difficult to prove an assault or murder later when the death is investigated by CBI. “However, the Goan authorities forget that due to the same reasons, it is also impossible to exclude an assault or murder,” she says.

She added that due to the these reasons all 

deaths of tourists taking place in Goa are now considered as suspected murders, which makes Goa appear to be a dangerous tourist destination. “The procedure how deaths of the tourists are left unstudied continues to be a systematic injustice and human rights violation taking place in Goa,” the mother continues. 

In addition to Felix’s case, Pirhonnen points out that deaths of hundreds of tourists have been left similarly unsolved by Goa Police to cover up possible murders by locals. She mentions the Scarlet Keeling and Danielle McLaughlin cases. 

“Many people, including Goan policemen, participated in the killing of Caitanya Holt but no investigation followed. James Durkin was found dead with head and limbs removed but FIR was not registered, and his death was not investigated as a murder by Goan authorities. And so on...there are hundreds of similar cases,” she says.

She further says that the above cases makes her interpret that the lack of investigation of the deaths of tourists by Goa Police and authorities as an attempt to cover up murders so they would not affect tourism and economy.

“Unfortunately, this tactic does not work in the present situation with worldwide news and social media, but only makes Goa to appear as a lawless place where killers are free to assault new tourists,” she says, adding this has been published all over the world and as a consequence, foreign tourists now choose safer travel destinations.

She further recalls a statement made by Sawant wherein he says that Goa has a duty to help the tourists who are facing injustice. “The family Dahl, ask you as the leader of Goa to intervene to ensure that CBI’s investigation is made possible without further delays and obstructions,” she states, adding, “That way you can improve Goa as civilised society with a functional justice to regain the trust of the foreign tourists.”