TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: The Central Bureau
of Investigation (CBI) sleuths’ petition challenging acquittals of Samson
D’Souza and Placido Carvalho in the mysterious death of British teen Scarlet
Keeling Eden, has given the bereaved British family a new ray of hope.
About five months ago,
Children’s Court’s verdict finding the two locals not guilty on all charges had
left the family devastated with Fiona Mackeown, mother of the deceased
schoolgirl, seeking an appeal. As CBI knocked the doors of the high court of
Bombay at Goa earlier this month, Fiona is optimistic that justice is nor far.
“My
daughter was murdered and I do hope that the CBI will be able to prove who
killed her,” she said in an email chat with this reporter from Devon, London.
A
mother of eight children, Fiona had held key witness Michael Mannion partially
responsible for the acquittal as he failed to depose during the trial while
also alleging that CBI was
either incompetent or corrupt for toning down the earlier murder charge (as per
police chargesheet) against the two men.
Speaking
to Herald, Advocate Vikram Varma – who left no stone unturned to ensure justice
to the foreign family, reiterated that autopsy confirmed Scarlet was raped and
murdered. “Substantial evidence was destroyed and there was conscious delay in
the handing over the investigation to the CBI. The Criminal Justice system
consists of many cogs and wheels any one of which can subvert the entire
system, this has been such a case so far,” he said. “Unless adequate energy is
provided against those who commit destruction of evidence and perjury, the
system can never improve.”
Scarlett was on a six-month
family holiday in 2008 with her mother, her mother’s boyfriend Rob and seven
siblings and half-siblings, when tragedy struck. On the early morning of
February 18, her semi naked bruised body was found on the shores of Anjuna. Two
autopsies were carried out after Fiona alleged goof up in the police
investigation, and over 100 days of the incident, the case was transferred to
the CBI. But following 16 months’ investigation, the CBI charged D’Souza and
Carvalho with culpable homicide not amounting to murder, outraging modesty, causing hurt by means of drugs, destruction of
evidence and other sections of the IPC.
With her last visit to Goa
on September 23, 2016 when the verdict was pronounced, Fiona hinted she is not
keen to visit Goa again. “The order of the lower court has eroded my confidence
for the safety of women and children in India. It did seem that in India, women
live in fear while criminals walk free,” she said.
In its petition, CBI said that special judge had not
applied her judicial mind, both on the points of law and on facts of the case.
