A controversial doctor responsible for the lapses in the first autopsy in the Scarlett Keeling case has been suspended by the Goa government late on Monday night. The government said an enquiry would be conducted against Dr Silvano Sapeco, head of Forensic Medicine at the government-owned Goa Medical College, for his unprofessional behaviour.
“There were serious discrepancies in the way he conducted the first autopsy and his behaviour subsequently has been most controversial,” Chief Secretary J P Singh told Deccan Herald. Not new to controversy, Dr Sapeco had been suspended for shoddy forensic investigations in another murder case some years ago. In the Scarlett case, the autopsy he conducted noted only five superficial bruises on her body and put down the cause of death to drowning, a conclusion that remains even now a possibility.
His controversial remarks annoyed the police and brought on his suspension. “Was he an eye-witness to the incident to arrive at such a conclusion?” Singh asked.
The Goa government also hinted on Monday that it was not averse to handing the case over to the CBI for investigations, a demand Keeling’s mother Fiona has persisted with. Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat told the state’s legislative assembly that the government was considering bringing in the CBI because the state had nothing to hide.
