Goa police say close to cracking Brit teen murder case

INDIA: Indian police investigating the murder of British teenager Scarlett Keeling in the resort of Goa said on Wednesday they were close to solving the case.

“We are moving with a very fast speed in the positive direction of solving this case,” Goa police official Kishan Kumar told AFP, after chief minister Digambar Kamat said he expected the case to be wrapped up in “one or two days.”

“It will be well before that time,” said Kumar, without giving further details.

Nobody has yet been charged with killing the 15-year-old, more than three weeks after her bruised and partially naked body was found on a beach.

Police appeared to be pinning their hopes on a British man who told a newspaper that he saw a bartender from Lui cafe, where Keeling was last seen alive, “lying on top” of the girl a few hours before her body was found.

The man told the The Times in London that he had fled Goa fearing that he was in danger after Keeling’s body was found on popular Anjuna beach on February 18.

“We want him because his deposition is crucial in the case,” said police superintendent Bosco George. “A notice has been issued that he should not leave the country and we are on the look-out for him.”

Panaji, Wednesday, AFP