The Goa bench of Bombay High Court will on Wednesday pronounce its verdict on an appeal filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against the acquittal of two men for the rape and murder of British teenager Scarlett Keeling in 2008.
The judgement will be pronounced through video conferencing at 5.15pm as the bench that heard the matter is no longer posted in Goa.
CBI challenged the judgement of the Goa children’s court which in 2016 acquitted Samson D’Souza and Plácido Carvalho in the sexual assault and murder of Scarlett Keeling.
Keeling was found dead in the sands of Anjuna beach in February 2008 leading to a huge national and international media uproar. Goa Police initially sought to close the case as an accidental drowning, but after an outrage, the case was handed over to the central probe agency.
CBI had charged D’Souza and Carvalho, both working at the Curlies’ beach shack, WITH culpable homicide, sexual assault and drugging the teenager. They were last seen with Keeling before her death.
The CBI argued that the Goa Children’s Court erred in acquitting the accused based on technicalities in the matter and sought to stress that they were last seen with the 15-year-old Keeling and did not satisfactorily explain their whereabouts and conduct thereafter.
{{/usCountry}}The CBI argued that the Goa Children’s Court erred in acquitting the accused based on technicalities in the matter and sought to stress that they were last seen with the 15-year-old Keeling and did not satisfactorily explain their whereabouts and conduct thereafter.
{{/usCountry}}The men, however, argued that the Children’s Court was right in giving them benefit of doubt as there was no direct evidence linking them to the murder.
They were acquitted of all charges in 2016 but the CBI chose to appeal the order in early 2017.