The Bombay High Court’s Goa Bench on Wednesday convicted a person in the 2008 British teenager Scarlett Eden Keeling death case, overturning his acquittal by the trial court.
Scarlett was found dead with bruises at Anjuna beach in Goa on February 18, 2008. Two locals, Samson D’Souza and Placido Carvalho, were accused of leaving her to die after drugging and sexually abusing her. The Goa Children’s Court had acquitted both last year.
The High Court convicted D’Souza under IPC Sections 328 (for administrating drugs), 354 (outraging woman’s modesty), 304 (culpable homicide not amounting murder), and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) and for child abuse under Section 8(2) of the Goa Children’s Act. Arguments on the quantum of sentence would be heard on July 19. The case, initially investigated by the Goa police, was handed over to the CBI after Scarlett’s mother Fiona Mackeown raised doubts over the probe.