Scarlett case: Final HC hearing on CBI plea against acquittal on Apr 12

The Bombay High Court will hear final arguments on April 12 on a CBI petition challenging the acquittal of two accused by a lower court who were booked for drugging and raping British teenager Scarlett Keeling on state's Anjuna coast in 2008.

The Goa Children's Court had in 2016 acquitted the accused, Samson D'Souza and Placido Carvalho, booked under the IPC for culpable homicide not amounting to murder, assault or use of criminal force on a woman with an intent to outrage her modesty and administering a stupefying drug with an intent to cause hurt.

The CBI challenged the acquittal of D'Souza and Carvalho in the high court in February last year.

 

A Goa bench of justices Prithviraj Chavan and N M Jamdar has fixed April 12 as the date to hear final arguments on the CBI's plea, the HC stated in an order, which was made available today.

Scarlett's bruised body was found on the popular Anjuna beach in north Goa on February 18, 2008, four days after the 15-year-old went for a beach party while the rest of her family members were travelling in other parts of the country.

The case, initially investigated by the Goa Police, was later handed over to the CBI by the state government after Scarlett's mother Fiona Mackeown raised doubts about the investigation conducted by local police.

The children's court acquitted D'Souza and Carvalho on September 23, 2016 for want of evidence.

The CBI had said the trial court wrongly concluded that the statements of the witnesses cannot be relied upon.

"The findings recorded by the trial court judge with regard to the medical evidence are perverse and contrary to the material on record," the CBI said in its plea before the high court.

The agency had also said that the trial court judge failed to appreciate the facts and law points involved in the case.

Senior counsel Vikram Varma, who represents Scarlett's mother Fiona, today said the family of the deceased expects that justice should be done.

"I will not comment on the merits as the matter is sub-judice, but I do hope that the truth is revealed and Scarlett gets justice. The only thing worse than losing a child (is to be) denied justice," he said.