Goa police look for British man in girl murder

(CNN) -- Indian police are seeking a British man who may have seen a British teenager on the night she was killed in the coastal state of Goa, a police official said Wednesday.

Inspector General Kishan Kumar said the man was with a group of people who reported seeing Scarlett Keeling, 15, drunk at a beachfront restaurant-bar on February 18. Scarlett was found dead later that night.

The teen's mother sent a letter to India's prime minister Wednesday in which she accused local police of covering up the murder to protect the the "strong drug mafia" operating in the area and asked for his intervention.

Kumar did not name the man being sought, who he believes is still in India. Kumar said the man was not a witness to Scarlett's death.

Police have already interviewed other members of the group the man was with, Kumar said.

No one has been charged in the teenager's death, though Kumar said he expected charges "shortly."

A man who worked as a bartender along the beach is in custody in the case. Kumar has said police have evidence proving Samson D'Souza, 29, raped Scarlett and that police are now trying to link him to her death.

Scarlett's mother, Fiona MacKeown, has been outspoken about the police handling of the case, saying she believes police have covered up evidence and bungled the investigation.

Police initially said Scarlett drowned after drinking too much, and they said her body had been found in the sea.

MacKeown disputed that, saying witnesses found Scarlett's body on the beach covered in bruises, which suggested murder. MacKeown said she has pictures of her daughter's body from the autopsy that clearly show bruises all over.

MacKeown has said she collected evidence herself from the beach where Scarlett's body was found, including her daughter's underwear and other articles of clothing. She questioned why the police missed the evidence.

MacKeown urged a second autopsy on Scarlett's body, after which police said the girl had been raped and killed.

In her letter to the prime minister, MacKeown said there was a "strong drug mafia on the coast of Anjuna" that local police protected.

"I have no faith in the leadership of the Goa Police," she wrote. "I am certain, that they would try their best to implicate somebody, treat the crime in isolation while ignoring the larger and more important matter of this criminal nexus."

Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat told CNN sister network, CNN-IBN TV, Tuesday that he had transferred one of the police inspectors initially on the scene because of allegations of a cover-up. Kamat maintained that Scarlett's death initially looked like a drowning.

Scarlett had been on an extended vacation with her family in Goa but was living with a male friend and his aunts while the rest of her family traveled to an adjoining Indian state.

MacKeown said police plan to question her about negligence for leaving her daughter in Goa, though she said she was not negligent.

"The people I left her with I trusted, and they behaved responsibly," she told the British news network ITN. "I had no reason to think that they wouldn't be responsible."

The mother said she knew the man and his family "quite well" and they treated Scarlett like a part of the family, though she said Scarlett and the man eventually started a sexual relationship.

MacKeown told ITN she does not believe the police investigation should end with D'Souza.

"He may have been involved (in Scarlett's death), but I don't think he was the only man," she said. "She was seen with more than one man that night. I think it would take more than one man to do that to her."

The case has thrown the spotlight on Goa, popular for its white sandy beaches and electronic trance music scene.

"My daughter has been murdered and nothing would bring her back to life, but your timely intervention now, would ensure, that the tourists coming here, as well as the people of Goa retain their faith in the state and administration," MacKeown wrote in her letter. E-mail to a friend

CNN's Sara Sidner contributed to this report

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