‘Ravi Naik, his son & Mannion are responsible’

PANAJI: A distraught Fiona MacKeown, mother of Scarlett Keeling, whose semi-nude body was found on the Anjuna Beach in February 2008, hit out at then home minister Ravi Naik, his son Roy Naik, and prime witness Michael Mannion alias Mike Masala and held them accountable for the ‘not guilty’ verdict.
Calling Mannion a coward, she said, “He lives just an hour from London. It would have taken him very little effort to get there.”
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), with the help of the Indian embassy in London, had made arrangement for Mannion to depose before the children’s court in Goa through video conferencing.
“He lives five hours from where I live. I offered to drive down, pick him up and cover his daily wages. But still he did not depose,” she said, and added that he did not give her any reason as to why he wasn’t willing to do so.
“The first time, Mannion left Scarlett to die, and I think he let her down again. The foreign office used to tell me that without Mannion’s deposition it would be difficult to get a guilty verdict,” MacKeown said.
As regards former home minister Ravi Naik and his son, MacKeown said they had tried to sabotage the case. Maintaining that pressure was put on then Anjuna police sub-inspector (PSI) Nerlon Albuquerque, she said that the PSI lied to her about the reason for the death of her daughter. “Somebody instructed Albuquerque to tell his junior to treat it like an accident.”
When asked if she regretted leaving her daughter behind, an emotional MacKeown said, “Yes, very much.”
“Naik and his son are definitely involved in the cover-up in the case. I hold them responsible,” MacKeown added.
Asked whether the CBI had also botched up the case, she said, “When I asked about Roy Naik, CBI officers told me that he is a nice guy. That gave me a few doubts.”
Reacting to the verdict, MacKeown said she was shocked. “I did not expect a ‘not guilty on all counts’ verdict, because there was evidence of a drug trail and more than one witness were there. I want to see the order copy to understand what was behind her (president of Goa children’s court) decision,” she added.
“The CBI is empowered to challenge the acquittal order, and I want them to challenge the order in a higher court,” MacKeown said and alleged that the CBI carried out hardly any investigation when there was so much to probe into.
“They wanted to protect drug dealers, who make lot of money,” she said, and alleged that persons on the beach heavily bribe the police. “I have lived in Goa for a while and I know the police used to go and knock on doors demanding money,” she said.
Stating that she did not know what exactly happened on February 18, the day Scarlett’s body was found, MacKeown said there was a male witness who tried to get in touch with her in England through some other tourist. “The person claimed to have seen Scarlett. She was trying to get home and some guys were trying to stop her. Something happened that night, which has not been investigated into,” she added.
While stating that she knew that the CBI is competent, MacKeown questioned why they did not investigate when she gave them a photograph, name and address of that witness. “Why did they not trace him? I am beginning to think that there was some corruption earlier in the CBI investigation,” MacKeown alleged, but said that “someone good will come along and investigate the case further”.