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Chargesheet in Scarlett case a legal formality: Police
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NewsByte on 04 June, 2008 05:03:25
 
Goa police officials on Wednesday said that the chargesheet filed in the
Scarlett death case was just a "legal formality" even as it said that
investigations in the case were on.
"CBI will take over the case any time and investigations will continue. The
central agency can file supplementary chargesheet once their investigations are
completed," said a senior police officer requesting anonymity.
Goa police had on Tuesday filed a chargesheet in Scarlett Eden Keeling murder
case against two accused - Samson D'Souza and Placido Carvalho - in Goa
Children's court under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Goa children's act.
"We had to file a chargesheet as it was almost ninety days that Samson is
behind bars and we would not have been able to oppose to his bail application
which will be heard on June 6," a senior police officer contended.
Goa police, who were left red faced after its initial goof up in the case, had
zeroed down on these two accused during their investigation for their role in
drugging, raping and leaving Scarlett to die on Anjuna shore.
Murder most foul
Scarlett's bruised, semi-nude corpse was found on the shore on February 18.
Since then, Fiona Mackeown, Scarlett's mother, had launched a campaign against
the state police and drug mafia which had hogged international headlines for
over couple of months.
Goa chief minister Digamber Kamat, who initially refused to hand over the case
to CBI had issued notification transferring the case to the central agency.
The transfer formalities are still on while the chargesheet cropped up on
Tuesday.
"We have completed our investigation into this case one and half month back. We
were waiting for CBI to take over. But since CBI is taking time, we thought it
better to chargesheet the case," reasoned a police officer, in charge of the
sensational murder investigation.
He said that the CBI will file a fresh First Information Report (FIR) in this
case before it proceeds with the investigation.
The 287-page chargesheet has testimonies of 87 witnesses including Fiona
Mackeown, her lawyer Vikram Varma, prime British eye witness Michael Mannion,
dismissed Goa police sub inspector Nerlon Albuquerque, Goa medical college and
hospital's forensic experts and others.
The state police have already issued summons to Fiona upon her media statement
that she knows who killed her daughter. Officials confirmed that Fiona is yet to
reply to the summons.
Goa police sources also confirmed that, during the investigation, police had
issued summons to few National Commission for Women (NCW) members, who had made
claims in the press conference that four to five people were involved in killing
Scarlett.