He doesn't quite come across like a hero, although Fiona MacKeown called him that last week in an interview to this paper. He sticks to the simple bush shirt-trouser combination with a pen in his pocket; a black lanyard for the spectacles, his only accessory.

For MacKeown, 55, Vikram Varma has been advisor, advocate and healer. In the 11 years since her daughter Scarlett Keeling's bruised and partially clothed body was found on Anjuna beach in Goa, Varma has been instrumental in working behind the scenes to ensure justice was done. The 15-year-old from Bideford in Devon was on a six-month holiday to India with her family when she died. The two accused, Samson D'Souza and Placido Carvalho, who worked at a beach shack where she was found, were earlier acquitted by the Goa Children's Court in 2016 after a lengthy trial. But after severe public criticism and media attention, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) stepped in.