India Police Arrest 2nd Man Over UK Girl´s Murder

˝There is a clear nexus between criminals and officers of the Goa police,˝ Fiona MacKeown, mother of Keeling, told Reuters.

Indian police have arrested a second suspect in connection with the rape and murder of a 15-year-old British girl in Goa last month, but her mother said the investigation was turning out to be a "farce".

Indian authorities originally said that Scarlett Keeling appeared to have drowned after taking drugs. Later they said a second autopsy revealed injuries that indicated murder.

"There is a clear nexus between criminals and officers of the Goa police," Fiona MacKeown, mother of Keeling, told Reuters.

Police arrested the second man, Placido Carvalho, late on Wednesday and also suspended the original investigating officer of the case, as media criticism mounted on Goa police.

Carvalho is the second person to have been arrested in the case. Samson D'Souza, reported to be a barman in a beach shack, was arrested earlier this week, suspected of rape.

Mackeown has written to the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking his intervention, as she feels the case has weakened, with the police sitting on vital medical tests for weeks to confirm the presence of drugs in Keeling's body.

"I think these guys will be released and it will be another farcical case where nobody gets charged for it," she said.

MacKeown has accused the police of initially covering up her daughter's murder. Indian media said this may have been to protect the state's tourism industry.

The autopsy revealed bruises all over Keeling's body, that her mouth was stuffed with sand and she did not have enough saltwater in her lungs to indicate drowning.

At a press conference on Thursday, Kishan Kumar, Goa's inspector general of police, gave more details about how they believe she died.

According to the police account, she wandered drunk into the beach bar where Samson worked in the early hours of the morning. Samson took her into the kitchen and gave her more alcohol, along with ecstasy, LSD and cocaine.

Samson took her outside and attacked her as she drifted in and out of consciousness before he was startled by someone approaching with a torch.

"He dumped the girl then-and-there, who at this time must be half-dead," Kumar said. "Then he ran away." She drowned in shallow waters, he added.

Keeling's case is the latest to highlight the safety of tourists in India. Tourism officials met this year to discuss attacks on tourists after at least seven foreign women and girls said they had been raped or molested.

MacKeown said many past deaths have not been properly investigated. "It is not the death of one girl, but so many, many of these cases that has been hushed up," she said.