With UK Prime Minister David Cameron, seven cabinet and high-level delegates from Brit foreign office in India, investigations into the murder of UK national Stephen Bennett likely to get a new lease of life
The mysterious death of British tourist Stephen Bennett has revealed a tardy police probe, with his mother Maureen, from Cheltenham, UK listing out several discrepancies. The family has flatly refuted the police theory that Stephen travelled from Goa to Roha in Maharashtra on the Mandovi Express.
 | | Stephen Bennett | Mid-day had first published a picture of Bennett in its December 2006 edition, which helped the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) glean more details about the case. Bennett's family -- sister Amanda and mother Maureen -- and FCO officials insist the case be transferred to the CBI.
Through the documents furnished to Indian authorities, Maureen has rubbished the theory of her son travelling by train claiming that he left the cottage in Baga at 9.30 am on December 7, 2006.
Speaking to Sunday Mid-Day from her home in Cheltenham, England, Maureen said, "I hope the foreign delegates currently in India take up Stephen's murder case and request for a CBI probe. The FCO has assured me that they would discuss the case with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Home Minister P Chidambaram."
She added, "I was shocked to discover that the trial of five (originally six) villagers from Roha accused of killing Stephen had already started without the police or judicial system bothering to inform either my family or the FCO".
She added, "To date, we have had no communication from the police; they have refused to respond to any email or phone call. Despite incessant emails, they don't tell me anything about the ongoing trial! Apparently, the court has examined 12 witnesses already, yet we don't even know the dates of those hearings! We therefore assume that the police wish to brush this case under the carpet as quickly as possible."
Maureen continues, "I was the last person to speak to Stephen before he was dragged into the killers' car in Wadkhal. I should have been called as a major witness. Instead, the police have brushed aside everything we have discovered, including evidence uncovered by the British police and Stephen's own statements about what was happening to him. They have also silenced vital witnesses and invented new witness statements."
With the evidence contradicting itself, Maureen is afraid the villagers will go free. "The major village witness has 'turned hostile' and now, says he saw nothing."
Maureen says the police forced him to sign a blank statement, and then filled it in with the claim that the old man had run up the hill and saw the the six men hang Stephen. "But the truth is that Stephen had been strangled with a ligature, then his dead body was carried up the hill two days later and strung up using an old sari belonging to one of the village women. I believe the police want this outcome, as most of the villagers were just scapegoats. Why are the police so keen to push such a ridiculous story, pretending this was an 'honour' killing -- what is their hidden agenda?"
Letter written to RR Patil by UK Foreign Office
Stephen's sister Amanda Bennett added, "Maureen had written a letter to Home Minister RR Patil to have the case transferred to the CBI. Foreign Office minister, the Right Honourable Ivan Lewis, has backed our request in a letter to Patil (see box, copy with SMD). We have not received any acknowledgement. Perhaps the presence of David Cameron in India with half the British government will have some effect!"
"At last, the police-politician-mafia drug nexus is right out in the open, with mounting pressure for CBI investigation. Perhaps a CBI investigation would lead them to hear what EVERYONE in Goa knows about Stephen's case," said Amanda.
The family has also engaged advocate Vikram Verma, who is fighting the Scarlett Keeling murder case to handle Stephen's murder case.
Stephen's children still miss him
stephen was a gentle person whose greatest passions were his children, his four animals, his girlfriend, and the house that he was doing up. He loved to travel, and was excited about his first trip to India. His children miss Stephen every single day, says his mother Maureen. His elder daughter is 21 now. She is a paediatric nurse and is stays on her own, while the other two, 12 and 10 years old, live with their grandmother, who moved in with them to start a new life without Stephen. |
