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Medical test for Scarlette’s boyfriend

PANAJI: The Goa police on Saturday arranged for a medical examination of Julio Lobo, 21-year-old Goan boyfriend of the British teenager Scarlette Keeling, as part of investigations in the alleged murder case.

Fearing arrest in the “alleged drugging, rape and murder” case under Section 34 (common intent) of the Indian Penal Code as well as under Section 8 (sex with a minor) of the Goa Children’s Act, 2003, Julio has already obtained anticipatory bail from the Children’s Court.

As Scarlette was a minor, Julio’s relationship with her will come under the scanner. The Goa Children’s Act as well as the IPC considers consensual sex with a minor ‘rape’. Saturday’s medical examination assumes significance in that context, police sources indicated.

The sources said investigation of Julio became crucial as he told the police, during initial interrogation, that he had left Scarlette with a Spanish female friend on the eve of February 17. Placido Carvalho, an alleged drug peddler, and Samson D’Souza, a barman, are presently in police custody for alleged drugging and rape of Scarlette before abandoning her on the Anjuna beach in north Goa before she died in the early hours of February 18. Her semi-nude body was found on the beach that morning.

Julio, a tourist guide from the Siolim, a village in north Goa, became friendly with Scarlette a little after she arrived in Goa with her mother in November last. She began staying with Julio with the full knowledge of her mother Fiona MacKeown at least a couple of weeks prior to her mysterious death. Her mother, along with her partner and other children, was in Gokarna in Karnataka, according to police records.

Meanwhile, the Goa police confirmed that Scarlette’s mother was already issued a no-objection certificate to take the body back to her home town of Devon in the U.K. next week for final rites.

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