Scarlett killers snorted cocaine, says witness
A crucial witness in the Scarlett Keeling case told the trial court on Friday that one of the accused and another man who worked in a restaurant next door, had been snorting cocaine in his shack a few hours before the British teenager was found dead on the beach.
Luis Coutinho, the owner of Lui’s shack, Anjuna, said that Placido Carvalho — one of the men on trial for the teen’s death — and Murli Sagar were sitting in his kitchen drinking and snorting lines of ‘coke’ before Scarlett walked into the restaurant.
“Around 2.30 am Murli came into my shack and sat in the kitchen with Shannaboy (Carvalho). Both were having drinks and sniffing lines of coke on a dish,” he told the court.
Coutinho’s admission is a confirmation of what many other witnesses had told the police. But it also helped the defence put him under pressure to discredit his testimony.
Retracts statement
When defence lawyer Saresh Lotlikar told the shack owner that he had obviously not “objected to drug use” in his shack and the police too had been remiss in not taking action against him, despite his admission, Coutinho attempted to retract his statement saying he had not actually seen the two men snort cocaine.
Murli Sagar, who worked in the shack next door, is the prosecution’s key witness in this case. Carvalho, who was described by Coutinho as a “matka bookie”, is the second accused in the case.
The prime accused, Samson D’Souza, worked as a bartender for Coutinho who identified him in court on Friday.
