Report says Scarlett was drowned, mother to move HC

A day after a new forensic report suggested that British teenager Scarlett might have been forcibly drowned...

A day after a new forensic report suggested that British teenager Scarlett might have been forcibly drowned, her mother Fiona Mackeown on Sunday said she would move the Bombay High Court seeking a CBI probe into the alleged cover-up by the Goa police in investigation into her daughter’s death.

However, the Goa police questioned the report, saying its author had spoken as if he was a witness to the incident.

Questioning the final forensic report by Dr Silvano Sapeco on Scarlett’s death which challenged the police’s conclusion, Goa Inspector General of Police Kishen Kumar told mediapersons here that he had made the remarks as if he was a witness to the incident. “Is it a report of an eyewitness or medical report”? Kumar said. “There are no contradictions (in police investigations and medical report).”

Story continues below this ad

However, Fiona sees the final report by Sapeco — the forensic expert who conducted the first autopsy on Scarlett — as confirmation that she had been murdered and had not accidentally drowned after an overdose of drugs and alcohol.

Sapeco’s report released on Saturday said that Scarlett’s head was pushed into the water for five to ten minutes. “I have always said that someone held her head in shallow water and killed her,” Fiona said. The report also says the bruises and abrasions on the body are suggestive of signs of struggle, which means the police theory that the girl was left to die in shallow water after being drugged and raped is ruled out. Also, the police’s claim that Scarlett was heavily drugged has been contradicted by the report, which says the level of ethyl alcohol detected in her body was not enough to cause death.

The IGP, however, wondered why Sapeco had not revealed his findings during the first autopsy. In fact, the first autopsy had ruled out foul play, leading to the ordering of a second autopsy. It was the findings of the second autopsy that forced the police to investigate her death as murder.