Authorities in India are investigating whether a British girl could have been raped and killed in the coastal state of Goa last month after the victim's parents demanded a more thorough look at the case.
Two weeks ago, police found the body of Scarlet Keeling, a 15-year-old British tourist, with bruises all over her body on a deserted Goa beach. Police initially said she had possibly drowned.
It is the latest case 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.
Keeling's parents said Scarlet was raped and murdered and demanded immediate action, police said. "We have recorded her death as an unnatural one and now trying to find out whether she was indeed raped and murdered," Bosco Jorge, a senior police officer probing the case, said from Goa.
An autopsy report has revealed her mouth was stuffed with sand and she did not have enough salt water in her lungs to suggest drowning, but police said it was too early to come to conclusions.
On Sunday, authorities in Goa said they had asked the police to look deeper into the case after Keeling's parents demanded a second autopsy. "We are looking into this case very seriously," J.P. Singh, the chief secretary of Goa state, told Reuters by telephone.
"We are looking at all possible angles to find out what exactly happened." Tourist industry officials were worried. "If we can't protect our tourists, the word will spread and people will be scared to come to India," Sunil Kohli, chairman of the Travel Agents Federation of India said in New Delhi.
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