CBI may reinvestigate the Haren Pandya Murder Case

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will reinvestigate the Haren Pandya Murder Case, if so desired by the Supreme Court.

The CBI got the green signal from the home minister to move a special leave petition in the Supreme Court of India to challenge last month's Gujarat High Court judgment which acquitted 12 accused of the murder charge.

Stung by the HC's castigation of CBI for its sloppy investigation, CBI chief A P Singh met Chidambaram on Monday to discuss further course of action. Sources said Singh gave a detailed half-hour presentation in the presence of a legal expert where he admitted to loopholes in the investigation resulting in gross miscarriage of justice.

The discussed veered around to the view that the agency should not shy away from re-investigation, if directed by the Supreme Court. This is a demand which has already been raised by the victim's family members. Interestingly, the Brahma Samaj in Gujarat has also jumped into the fray and has demanded that a fresh probe be ordered. Leaders of the Brahmin community are scheduled to state a protest at Law Garden on Wednesday evening, at the same spot where Pandya was shot dead on the morning of March 26, 2003. The community is also expected to intervene in the case, when the CBI approaches the SC, and had already lined up a senior lawyer for the purpose.

Meanwhile, three senior Congress leaders of Gujarat - Shankarsinh Vaghela, Shaktisinh Gohil and Arjun Modhvadia - also met Chidambaram in New Delhi on Tuesday and represented the feelings of family members and the community. They added that even the Gujarat government had suggested on the day of HC judgment that CBI should go to the apex court.

While Chidambaram promised to expedite the matter, a highly-placed CBI source said there were sufficient grounds for re-investigation as fresh leads had been obtained about the Pandya killers during subsequent investigations of fake encounters in Gujarat.

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Death sentence to 17 Indians challanged before Higher Court

An appeal was filed on Thursday on behalf of the 17 Indians who were recently found guilty by a Sharjah court of killing a Pakistani national and injuring three of his compatriots. The appeal was filed in a Sharjah Court of Appeals, India's Consul-General Sanjay Verma has said.

The Consulate had earlier said that they have hired a Dubai-based law firm, Mohamed Salman Advocates and Legal Consultants, to represent the Indians. Consulate officials had met all 17 Indians earlier this week and said that they were in good health. The convicted, 16 from the Punjab and one from Haryana, were recently found guilty by the Sharjah Court of killing a Pakistani national and injuring three of his compatriots allegedly during a clash in an illegal alcohol business in January 2009.  About 50 people were involved in the attack, in which the Pakistani man was beaten to death with metal bars. The men on death row are accused of being the gang leaders.

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I found naked body of battered Scarlett - Statement of policeman before the court

A policeman told a murder trial yesterday how he found the body of British teenager Scarlett Keeling half-submerged in water on a tourist beach. The Indian officer said he discovered the lifeless 15-year-old face down on the shore after she had been raped and left for dead.

Fighting back tears, Police Constable Gurunath Naik said: 'The sea was splashing at the body and she had no clothes on apart from a shirt which was around her right shoulder. 'She was lying on her stomach and her eyes and mouth were partly open.' The body of Scarlett, from Bideford, Devon, was found on Goa's Anjuna beach in February 2008. Post-mortem examinations found a cocktail of drink and drugs in her system and suggested she may have died by drowning. Mr Naik was the first of more than 70 witnesses who will give evidence in the trial of two men accused of killing the teenager. 

The officer told the Goa Children's Court in Panaji that he was on duty at Anjuna police station when he received an anonymous phone call saying a person had been found lying by the water. 'I got to the beach within ten minutes, and noticed the body of a young lady,' he said, adding that he saw Scarlett's orange sandals strewn on the sand 'two to three metres' from where she lay. He told the court that he dragged the teenager's body away from the sea and covered her with a sheet while waiting for other officers to arrive. 

As Mr Naik gave evidence, the two accused sat calmly at the back of the court. Samson D'Souza, 30, and Placido Carvalho, 42, were arrested a month after Scarlett's death, but are currently on bail and their trial has been delayed repeatedly.

Scarlett's mother's lawyer, Vikram Verma, welcomed the start of the trial but questioned the decision to keep the accused on bail. He said: 'Now the trial has started there is the possibility of them putting pressure on the witnesses. I hope the prosecution will move the application to have them remanded in custody.' From her home in north Devon, Scarlett's mother Fiona MacKeown-said she hoped the trial would go 'smoothly'.

She added: 'It is really strange because you want it to go ahead but it drags everything back up again. 'I feel quite nervous because we have waited for so long for this and the end means I can finally bury Scarlett.' Miss MacKeown, 43, fought for a full investigation into her daughter's death after police initially suggested the teenager had drowned by accident. But allegations of negligence have been levelled at her for leaving Scarlett alone in Goa while travelling to the neighbouring state of Karnataka.

Miss MacKeown is currently waiting to be sentenced after admitting benefit fraud last month at Exeter Crown Court. She is also expected to give evidence in the Goan trial in the next few weeks, possibly via a video link.
This week, the Goa Children's Court will hear from four more police witnesses and four bar owners who all saw Scarlett's body on the beach.

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