Panaji: A Goa court on Friday acquitted two men accused of raping and killing British schoolgirl Scarlett Keeling in 2008.
The alleged rape and murder of the British teenager had then triggered an outrage that put a global spotlight on the dark underbelly of the country’s tourism industry.
“I find them not guilty of all charges,” Judge Vandana Tendulkar said after the trial of Samson D’Souza and Placido Carvalho in the state capital Panaji.
Fifteen-year-old Keeling’s bruised and half-naked body was found on popular Anjuna beach eight years ago. Her death triggered a debate on how unsafe the popular tourist destination was for foreigners, especially women.
Goa Police initially dismissed the teenager’s death as an accident but opened a murder probe after Keeling’s mother, Fiona MacKeown, pushed for a second autopsy, which proved she had been drugged and raped.
“I’m devasatated,” Mackeown told a news channel amid criticism about the sluggish pace of the case.
MacKeown also accused local authorities of trying to cover up the death to protect drug gangs operating in Goa.
Several weeks after the attack, local men D’Souza and Carvalho were arrested.
