PANAJI, INDIA - INDIAN police on Sunday rejected a forensic report that said British teenager Scarlett Keeling was drowned by her killers in the resort state of Goa.

The Goan police, who have been accused by the girl's mother of staging a cover-up, repeated their belief that 15-year-old Scarlett was raped and left to die by her assailants in shallow water.

'There are no contradictions (in the police investigations). He (the doctor) is talking as if he is giving an eyewitness account,' Goan police chief Kishan Kumar told reporters.

He said the girl, whose body was found at dawn on popular Ajuna Beach, was held under water for five to 10 minutes and the alcohol and drugs in her body was 'not enough to cause coma and death.' He said multiple bruises on the body and other findings were consistent with a '(text) book picture of homicidal drowning.' 'If there was something (like this), why was it not mentioned in his first report?' Mr Kumar asked reporters on Sunday.

He also questioned why the first autopsy by Dr Sapeco did not comment on the bruises on Scarlett's body.

Doctor criticised by teen's mother
Dr Sapeco was criticised earlier by Scarlett's mother Fiona MacKeown for not making any statement in writing raising the possibility of foul play, although he said he mentioned it verbally to police.

A second autopsy by a different set of forensic experts said the death should be investigated as a murder but did not go into detail about how Scarlett was believed to have been killed.

Goan police earlier this month arrested Samson D'Souza, 29, a bartender at the cafe, and alleged drug dealer Placido Carvalho, 29, for Scarlett's murder.

Seeking Court protection
The latest police statements came hours after her mother said she would ask the Goan High Court for protection.

She and her lawyer Vikram Varma said they feared her accusations against senior Goan officials, including a state minister, could put her in harm's way.

'We've been warned by a lot of locals to be careful,' Ms MacKeown said. 'We've been stirring up a big hornets' nest.'

Ms MacKeown, 43, said Dr Sapeco's new report lent fresh weight to her allegations that links between police officials, politicians and the drugs mafia were hampering a proper probe into her daughter's Feb 18 death.

Ms MacKeown also said she plans to ask the court to force local police to hand over the investigation file to federal police.

The teenager's mother came to Goa from southwest England last November with seven of her nine children for a six-month stay.

But Ms MacKeown has come in for accusations of parental neglect for going on holiday in another part of the country and leaving behind Scarlett who was involved in Goa's sex and drug scene. -- AFP