The death of Scarlett Keeling will always remain a deep scar left on the pristine beaches of Goa. Eight years after the British teenager’s body was found on Anjuna beach, the Children’s Court acquitted the two men who were accused of drugging, sexually abusing and leaving her to die. While one of the men, who was acquitted left the courtroom saying that ‘justice has prevailed’, for Scarlett’s shocked mother Fiona MacKeown, the verdict brings no closure. Her daughter was found dead in 2008 and two autopsies gave differing verdicts. She had waited four years, till 2012, to bury the mortal remains of her daughter hoping that the case would be resolved by then. Yet four years later she still does not know who killed her daughter. She has now vowed to challenge the verdict in the higher court but at the same time said she has neither the financial resources nor the strength to wait another eight years while the appeal is heard and decided. The last is an indictment of the Indian legal system. The acquittal is definitely not the last that Goa has heard of the Scarlett Keeling case.
Scarlett’s death had made international headlines. A 15-year-old British national, alone in a strange land left in the care of a 25-year-old local man, while her mother holidayed in the neighbouring State with her boyfriend and Scarlett’s other siblings, had been found dead on a beach. The State police investigated the case, there were two autopsies conducted on the body and then the case, following pressure from the international media, had been handed to the Central Bureau of Investigation, the best the country has, as the local police were alleged to have botched up the investigation. The second autopsy confirmed at least 50 bruises on the body, injuries near her pelvic area, confirming rape and not enough water in lungs to rule that death was by drowning. The duo was charged with culpable homicide and after a long court hearing and change in judges and prosecutors, the verdict on Friday said the two men were not guilty.
So, who killed Scarlett? That is a question which CBI will now have to answer, along with many others. The autopsy on the body showed bruises and drugs in the system. Who dealt the blows that led to the bruises? Who administered the drugs? Who left her to die? The final judgement has not been released yet, so the principal reasons for the acquittal are still not known. But, if it is insufficient evidence, CBI will have to also answer the questions of how did it file charges in the court against the two accused if there was not sufficient evidence. It means the investigation failed.
The, verdict will again bring up the question of sloppy investigation, corruption among law enforcement and investigation agencies and bad parenting. These questions have been asked in the past eight years especially by the national and international media, and in the United Kingdom the media is raising the questions again and being critical of the Indian system. For instance, the report on The Guardian says, “The case has dragged for eight years through India’s notoriously sluggish justice system, delayed by frequent changes in judges and prosecutors. In that time, MacKeown has had to endure tasteless coverage of her daughter’s drug use and sex life, and close scrutiny of her own lifestyle, and of her decision to allow Keeling to travel alone to Anjuna while the family toured a neighbouring state.”
The bad publicity Goa received due to this case has not ended. The court has ruled that the two men accused of culpable homicide are not guilty. Will someone tell us who killed Scarlett?
