Body on Goa beach: cops say drowned; kin allege murder, demand probe

The woman’s family members, villagers, activists and political workers also joined in the demonstration. While the Goa police had said that sexual assault or violence was ruled out as a post-mortem report indicated that the woman may have died due to drowning, most who turned up in Aldona on Monday evening demanded an explanation for why the woman’s body was found semi-clad.

“We have reason to think that this was a case of murder. If it was a case of drowning, why would all her clothes not be on the body? Even the rubber-bands in her hair were intact but why would the clothes not be if she had, in fact, died of drowning,” asked the woman’s uncle.

On Monday, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, who holds the Home portfolio, said that the investigation was progressing as expected. He said that along with the Mapusa police station, officers of the Goa Police Crime Branch would also weigh in on the investigation.

On Monday evening, protesters who came out in support of the woman demanded a rigorous probe and many said that the case reminded them of the death of British teenager Scarlett Keeling in 2008 that was first recorded as a death by drowning. In 2019, the Bombay High Court sentenced Samson D’souza to ten years in prison for culpable homicide, drugging and sexually assaulting Keeling.