Team Herald
PANJIM: In pursuit of justice for his wife who was killed in Kerala, Irish national Andrew Jordan found his way to Goa in a bid to help fellow national Andrea Brannigan follow up the case of her daughter Danielle McLaughlin, who was allegedly raped and murdered by a local youth in Canacona last year.
Jordan raised strong apprehensions over the safety of foreign nationals in the country claiming he will approach the Central government just as other families of foreign tourists who died in Goa have done, demanding an unbiased and independent investigation in the deaths.
“I am in India since my wife Liga Skromane went missing in Kerala. Her body was found many days later. I have been fighting for justice since then and when I came across Danielle’s case, I realised both cases have met a similar fate though the investigating authorities are different. I came to Goa to give Danielle’s mother moral support and attend the court hearings,” Jordan told Herald before leaving for Cochin to pursue his case, on Friday.
Liga, a Lativan passport holder, had arrived in Thiruvananthapuram on February 21 for ayurvedic treatment of post-traumatic depression. On March 14, she went to a beach in Kovalam allegedly without informing her sister Ilze Skromane, who had accompanied her to India and has been missing since then. A decomposed body was washed ashore many days later which is said to be that of Liga’s.
“The police in both the states (Goa and Kerala) have been negligent in their respective cases. They have been ignoring the evidence. I have written to the Kerala CM for a probe by an independent agency into Liga’s case. In the interest of many foreign families who have been victims in India, I will like to approach Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a petition demanding to change the system,” he said.
Linking the cases of Danielle and Liga, Jordan claimed that the authorities ‘sacrifice and suppress justice’ to show India is a safe country for visitors.
Danielle, 28, was found battered on the beach on March 14, in a pool of blood hours after she celebrated Holi. Canacona resident Vikat Bhagat, 24, was arrested and charged with the murder. The case is currently on trial in the South Goa court.
