British girl death: Goa court reserves verdict

The arguments were completed on Thursday in the case of suspicious death of a minor British girl at Anjuna beach in 2008.

August 25, 2016 08:25 pm | Updated 08:25 pm IST - PANAJI

The arguments were completed on Thursday in the case of suspicious death of a minor British girl at Anjuna beach in 2008 at the Goa Children’s Court. The court reserved its order for September 23.

On Thursday, the contention of the defence was that in the absence of irrevocable admissible evidence the accused cannot be held guilty.

On the other hand, the prosecution submitted that Supreme Court has said clearly that at a time when the evidences are destroyed it is up to the court to apply its mind.

According to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)’s case before the Children's Court Samson D’Souza and Placido Carvalho, two workers of a local shack in Anjuna, who are the main accused, spiked the 16-year-old girl’s drinks with drugs, sexually assaulted her and left her to die at the beach in the morning of February 18, 2008. The duo are facing charges under Section 304 of Indian Penal Code (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 354 (use of criminal force on a woman with the intent to outrage her modesty) and 328 (administering drug to cause hurt).

After the mother of the victim, Fiona MacKeown, expressed her distrust at the probe conducted by local police, which led to suspension of some senior police officials for tampering with evidence in August 2008, the case was finally handed over to the CBI in August 2008. The trial started in 2010 and nearly 70 witnesses were examined over the past six years.

The minor's battered body was found in Anjuna beach on February 18, 2008. The girl who had come to Goa from Britain on holiday along with her mother and siblings was allegedly raped before she was killed, according to a pathologist's report which said that she died after being "forcibly submerged in water for five to 10 minutes".

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