PANAJI, India (AFP) — The mother of a British girl killed in the Indian beach resort of Goa said Saturday she would not bury her daughter's body without her missing organs, which authorities have still not released.
Fiona MacKeown, whose 15-year-old daughter Scarlett Keeling was found dead on a beach in Goa state in February, returned to India last weekend after flying her daughter's body back to England at the end of March.
"I will wait until I get them. Without the organs, I am not going to bury the body," MacKeown told AFP.
British police are carrying out another autopsy on Keeling's body, but have said they cannot proceed without the missing vital organs, which include the teenager's kidneys, pancreas, spleen and stomach.
"I will not bury an incomplete body. I want the organs back," the mother said.
MacKeown met with senior state government officials Thursday as well as members of the forensic department, who said they were deciding whether Indian authorities needed the organs to conduct more tests for the investigation into her death.
The row over the organs marks the 43-year-old mother's latest tussle with Indian authorities, whom she has accused of covering up her daughter's murder.
She spent weeks in India urging authorities, who first dismissed Keeling's death as a drowning, to properly investigate the death.
Police in March arrested a bartender and an alleged drug dealer for conspiracy to murder the girl. They said the pair gave Keeling a cocktail of illegal drugs before one of them repeatedly raped her and left her for dead.
The British mother has questioned why authorities removed the organs in their entirety rather than taking tissue samples, as well as why her consent was not requested.
Earlier, senior Goa officials said they had followed standard procedures.
MacKeown, who is due to depart on Sunday, has said she will return in a few weeks to follow up on the case.
Keeling's body, stripped of shorts and underwear, was found on the popular Anjuna Beach. Her mother has accused police of shielding top politicians and drug dealers during investigations into her daughter's death.
The family's lawyer said forensic tests in Britain could not be used as evidence in India but MacKeown has said she wants the examinations done "for my satisfaction."
She has said she wants to bury her daughter in Devon, southwest England, where her family lives. She came to Goa last November with seven of her nine children for a six-month stay.
MacKeown has been accused of neglect for going on holiday in another part of India, leaving Scarlett behind in Goa after the teenager declared she did not want to accompany the family.
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