Claiming that they have been let down by the State administration and local police, relatives of foreign nationals, who were killed or died mysteriously in Goa or in nearby areas over the last several years, have now knocked at the door of the PMO for justice.
The kin of as many as ten victims, who have lost their loved ones along the State’s coastal belt and adjoining areas have also demanded probe led by a Supreme Court judge into the deaths and they also alleged errant and inefficient investigations and miscarriage of justice in the deaths of their loved ones.
“We fervently request a Commission led by SC judge to analyse the investigations of the deaths of Caitanya Holt, Felix Dahl, James Durkin, Kyle Arndt, Scarlett Keeling, Denyse Sweeney, Stephen Bennett, Martin Neighbour, Michael Harvey and Jonathan Burbank to ensure a proper, unbiased and comprehensive investigation to reveal the truth about their deaths,” the letter states. The letter is in possession of The Pioneer.
The letter was written after Minna Pirhonen, whose son Felix Dahl was found dead in mysertious circumstances and believed to be murdered, Fiona Mackeown mother of 15-year-old Scarlett Keeling who was found sexually assaulted and dead on a Goa beach and Amanda Bennett, sister of Stephen Bennett who was found dead in mysterious circumstances in Maharashtra, co-ordinated with seven others who lost their loved ones in Goa, while on a vacation.
The petitioners also includes Parvati Dasi, whose son Caitanya Holt, a former US soldier and a member of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness mission in America, who was killed by a lynch mob in Goa.
The police in Goa, the letter alleges, are not to be trusted and in cahoots with local criminals.
”We are the families of some of the tourists who have been murdered in Goa since 2005. Police are resistant to solving these cases and those who are responsible for murder remain at liberty to re-offend. Similarly, the murders of many local people have been covered up by the police in Goa,” the letter states.
”The quality of the work of the police in Goa should be investigated. Instead of investigating the murders and killings, the local police want to cover up the truth,” it also states, adding that those who are responsible for the murder are at ‘”re-liberty to offend”.
”Since the killing of our relatives, the deaths have continued with at least one tourist in average dying each week in Goa and also many locals have lost their lives. This statistics places Goa as the second most dangerous tourist destination in the whole world. In many of these killings, whether tourists or locals, the same criminals appear to be involved,” the letter also states.
Goa is one of the top beach tourism destinations in the country and attracts more than four million tourists every year, which includes half a million foreign nationals.
