Mother of Dead UK Teen Alleges Cover-up

PANAJI, India, March 12, 2008 — -- The mother of a British teenager who was found dead on a beach in southern India wrote to India's prime minister Wednesday accusing authorities of colluding with criminals to cover up the apparent murder of her daughter.

The bruised and partially clothed body of Scarlett Keeling was found on Anjuna beach in Goa, a tiny state with a coastline crowded with tourist resorts, on the morning of Feb. 18.

Police initially said Keeling drowned because she was drunk, but pressure from her family forced a second autopsy that indicated she may have been raped and murdered.

"I have no faith in the leadership of the Goa police," Keeling's mother, Fiona MacKeown, said in her letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

MacKeown claimed drug dealers, politicians and police had collaborated to disguise the killing of her daughter as an accidental drowning.

"The administration tried its best to hush up the death as a simple case of drowning," MacKeown said in the letter, which her lawyer made available to the media. She said government officials had refused to acknowledge "the visible nexus" between drug dealers and the police.

Goa, a popular backpacking destination, is also known for its drug-infused beach parties. Some news reports claimed Keeling had been high on a mix of alcohol, LSD, Ecstasy and cocaine on the night she died. Police superintendent Bosco George said Tuesday that the autopsy showed no evidence of drug use.

"It was only on my request for a second autopsy that the glaring evidence of murder and the lies of the police officers came on record," MacKeown said in the letter.

The prime minister's office did not immediately respond to the letter, and calls to the office went unanswered Wednesday.

On Sunday, police arrested a 29-year-old Indian man on rape charges. The man had been seen with Keeling in what police described as a "compromising position" on the night she died.

Police said that even if the sex had been consensual, the suspect could be charged with statutory rape if Keeling had been under 16 years old, the age of consent.

Superintendent of Police Bosco George said Tuesday that an ossification test would be conducted to prove Keeling was only 15, because authorities did not have any of her identification papers.

An ossification test is a test of bones often used to determine the age of people in India, where accurate records are not always available. But the results may not be useful as evidence in this case because the test has a margin of error of two years, lawyers said. They declined to be named, saying their employers did not allow them to talk to the media.

Keeling had been on vacation in India with her mother, her mother's boyfriend, and her six siblings. Keeling's family was traveling elsewhere in India when she died.