The mother of Scarlett Keeling, the schoolgirl raped and left to die on a beach in Goa, confirmed yesterday that she had spent a year in prison when she was a teenager for stabbing her employer after he allegedly tried to force himself on her 16-year-old friend.

“It’s something that happened, and I learnt a lot from it,” Fiona MacKeown, 43, told The Times. “But it has no relevance to Scarlett’s case.”

Her comments came before she was ordered to attend a juvenile police unit in Goa after a summons under the Goa Children’s Act. Mrs MacKeown had previously said that she feared she would be questioned for leaving Scarlett, 15, behind while she travelled in another part of India.

However, last night she said the summons was scaremongering by the police, saying: “I think I am getting very close to proving how corrupt they are.”

Yesterday police in Goa were under pressure to investigate whether a third Indian man, believed to have links to Bollywood and to a powerful local politician, was also involved in the death of the teenager from Bideford, Devon.

Police say that they have almost cracked the case after arresting Placido Carvalho, a local drug dealer, and Samson D’Souza, a bartender, on suspicion of plying Scarlett with drugs and then raping her and leaving her to drown. But Mrs MacKeown and her lawyer believe that a third man, Murli Sagar, may be the key to exposing the “nexus” of local politicians, police and drug dealers whom they accuse of covering up the girl’s rape and murder.

“The issue is that there are at least two bigger guys who are being protected,” Mrs MacKeown said. “The two they arrested just didn’t pay enough in bribes.”

Mr Sagar was in Lui’s bar on Anjuna beach in Goa when Scarlett stumbled in at around 3am on February 18, and left with her at around 5am after offering to give her a lift on his scooter, witnesses say. Mr Sagar was then seen driving off on his scooter alone, while Mr D’Souza apparently sexually assaulted Scarlett and was later seen standing nearby talking on his mobile telephone.

Yet police who leaked the names of every other witness and suspect kept Mr Sagar’s name out of the media until Thursday when, under pressure from reporters, they admitted that they had questioned him.

Bosco George, the Goan Superintendent of Police, told The Times that police knew where Mr Sagar was and would continue to question him, although they did not regard him as a suspect at this stage.

Mrs MacKeown and many locals believe that is because Mr Sagar works at Curly’s bar, Anjuna’s leading party venue and a hangout for local drug dealers, which also happens to be owned by Edwin Nunes, the head of the local council.

Mr Sagar is believed to have been working there for a couple of years after giving up a career in Bollywood, where a late relative was a successful music director, according to Anjuna residents who know him.

“He’s a nice guy but he’s clearly very successful and it’s no coincidence that only he can have the late-night parties,” said one foreign resident who frequents Curly’s.

Goa banned playing music outside after 10pm in 2005 in a crackdown on allnight beach raves but locals say that Curly’s often flouts the ban. Drugs are said to be sold openly in the bar even though locals and foreign visitors claim that police conduct regular searches elsewhere in Anjuna.Vikram Varma, Mrs MacKeown’s lawyer, said that Mr Sagar should be questioned further.

“He could provide clues to the nexus. He’s on the third or fourth level from the top,” said Mr Varma. “Placido and Samson are just the foot-soldiers, or the henchmen. They don’t have the kind of money to pay off the police. The guys who have hushed up the matter are powerful people.”

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