Police covered up UK tourist murder - minister

By Bappa Majumdar

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Police deliberately covered up the murder of a 15-year-old British teenage girl who was found dead in Goa last month, the state's tourism minister said on Monday.

Police originally insisted that Scarlett Keeling had drowned after taking drugs, but changed their story after Keeling's mother kicked up a fuss and a second autopsy suggested she had been raped and murdered.

On Sunday, police arrested a man suspected of raping Keeling.

"This is a clear case of murder and it has gone out of proportion because the police tried to cover it up," Francisco X. Pacheco, Goa's tourism minister, told Reuters.

"The guilty police officers should be immediately suspended," Pacheco said by telephone after holding a news conference in Goa.

"I have spoken to senior government officials and told them that inaction in such cases will give Goa a bad name and they have assured me strong action," he said.

Indian media said there may have been an attempt to play down the death to protect the state's tourism industry -- but this appears to have backfired.

Senior police officers said they were investigating the allegations of a cover-up and the actions of junior officers.