“He is the missing link in this case, and we are keen to interrogate him,” Superintendent of Police North Goa Bosco George in charge of investigations told Deccan Herald. The lookout notice has been sent out on February 23, much before the case was registered, because Mannion’s name had often cropped up in the investigations, Mr George said.

The British man was among those seen with Scarlett Keeling in the Anjuna bar the day she was found dead.
Mannion, 36, has claimed to the British media that he had been a witness to “what had happened” to Keeling on Anjuna beach on the night of February 17, but had fled from Goa because he “feared” for his life.

Mannion who is still in India has been in touch with the Goa police through the UK consular office here. “I have conveyed to them that I am willing to meet him wherever he is to record his statement, since he claims he is scared to come down here,” Mr George said. The barman Samson D’Souza charged with raping the British teenager was on Wednesday denied bail by the courts on jurisdictional grounds.

Keeling’s mother Fiona Mackeown whose demand for a CBI inquiry into her daughter’s death was turned by the Goa government has now appealed to the Prime Minister to intervene. In a letter addressed to Dr Manmohan Singh Mackeown said: “My daughter has been murdered and nothing would bring her back to life, but your timely intervention now, would ensure that the tourists coming here, as well as the people of Goa retain their faith in the state and administration.”