CBI challenges acquittal in British girl’s death

The victim was found dead on Anjuna Beach in Goa in February 2008

The Central Bureau of Investigation has challenged in the Bombay High Court at Goa the acquittal of two accused in the case of suspicious death of a British teenage girl on the Anjuna Beach in February 2008.

On September 23 last, the Goa Children’s Court acquitted Samson D’Souza and Placido Carvalho, who were charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder by the CBI.

Vikram Varma, counsel of the U.K.-based mother of the victim, on Tuesday welcomed the CBI’s decision to appeal against the acquittal of beach shack workers.

Mr. Varma said the unwillingness of CBI officials to pursue the drug peddling angle in the sexual abuse and culpable homicide case had raised doubts about the role of the investigation agency.

The mother’s concerns about the CBI probe had been raised in a letter written by her to Prime Minister Narendra Modi soon after the trial court acquitted the two accused, Mr. Verma told journalists. The CBI claimed that the Special Judge had wrongly come to the conclusion that there was a delay in recording of statements of witnesses.

In the petition filed by Assistant Solicitor General Dattaprasad Lawande, the CBI said that if the statements of witnesses recorded by the Goa police and the CBI were compared with their deposition in court, their guilt would be revealed.

Plea to PM

Soon after the trial court’s judgment, the victim’s mother petitioned Mr. Modi seeking his intervention.

After the Goa police faced flak for poor investigation and the mother approached then Chief Minister Digambar Kamat seeking justice for her daughter, the case was handed over to the CBI.

The victim’s barely clothed body was found on the beach in February 2008. While the police initially registered the case as a suicide, a second autopsy revealed 52 injury marks on the body as well as traces of a cocktail of drugs in her system.