The investigation into the death of the British teenager Scarlett Keeling led to the arrest of a second person suspected of involvement in the rape and murder of the girl whose body was found battered and partially clothed on Anjuna beach last month.

Placedo Carvalho, who is an alleged drug dealer, was arrested and charged late Wednesday for murdering the 15-year-old teenager, after giving her a drug cocktail containing LSD, ecstasy and cocaine.

“Placido was arrested because he had given drugs to Scarlett,” Goa police superintendent Bosco George told AFP. “She died due to overdose and falling in the water. He is party to the entire incident.”

Vikram Varma, the lawyer of Scarlett’s mother, said that a stomach analysis should be carried out as soon as possible because the drug level reduces as time goes by.

“The drug angle has been covered up very well. After such a period of time drug levels get reduced. Then those charges are dropped,” said Varma.

Fiona MacKeown has already made allegations regarding the fact that the Goa police are trying to cover up her daughter’s murder by initially saying it was just an accidental drowning.

Only after the second post mortem examination, they ordered a murder investigation. She complained to the Indian Prime Minister about the local police’s attempt to hush up the case.

In a letter to Manmohan Singh, the Indian Prime Minister, Ms MacKeown, said: “I have no faith in the leadership of the Goa police. The administration tried its best to hush up the death as a simple case of drowning.”

Police made the first arrest during the weekend. Samson Dsouza, 29, a bartender working at the beach bar where Scarlett was last seen on the night of her murder, was charged with statutory rape. D’Souza told the court on Monday that there had been a consensual sexual intercourse between him and Scarlett, and that she was still alive when he left her shortly before dawn on February 18.

Whether consensual or not, the Indian law treats sexual intercourse with a minor as rape. D’Souza was remanded in police custody for 14 days.

A third man has been arrested Thursday in connection with the rape and murder of the British girl. His identity has not been released yet, the Press Association reports.

Scarlet was on a six-month holiday in India together with her mother, Fiona MacKeown, her mother’s boyfriend and seven of her nine siblings. The day when Scarlett was found dead, her family were touring a neighboring state. She was left in Anjuna to stay with her 25-year-old boyfriend, Julio Lobo, a tour guide.

Meanwhile, Scarlett’s mother may face negligence charges, as she left her teenage daughter in Anjuna, and went to visit another location, police inspector Kishan Kumar said.

“The mother should have taken care of the child since she was a minor. She left a minor girl in someone else's custody. Tourists should be more responsible and careful.”

Ms MacKeown, who has denied neglecting her daughter, said: “I think I was probably naive and too trusting of the people around her that claimed to be her friends, but that was probably the worst thing I have done.”