Scarlett on Goa’s Anjuna beach days before her death. (AFP)

Panaji, March 9: Goa police today detained three of the seven youths who were allegedly seen with a 15-year-old British girl before she was found dead on a beach last month.

Police said the youths had been seen loitering near the shacks on Anjuna beach, where Scarlett Keeling’s body was found on February 18.

“Three have been detained while we are on the lookout for four others,” an officer said.

The youths are likely to be formally arrested, police officer Bosco George said. The owner of a cafe on Anjuna beach, where Keeling was last seen partying, was reportedly among those detained. One person has been arrested, PTI said.

“We have pinned them down because they are always loitering around in the beach belt and their conduct was suspicious. They became friendly to her during her three-month stay,” the officer said.

Scarlett’s family members, pointing to bruises on her body, had contended that it was a case of rape and murder and not accidental death from drowning, as the police had tried to establish initially.

After chief minister Digamber Kamat’s intervention, the police conducted a second autopsy which indicated the possibility of murder. A murder case was filed today.

Scarlett’s mother Fiona MacKeown, who campaigned for the re-investigation of the death, told The Sunday Telegraph: “I’m relieved that we’ve achieved this first objective.

“It’s a strange feeling now, though, to come to terms with the fact that Scarlett was actually murdered. The hardest thing for me now is to try and put faith in the police officers who looked me in the eye and lied about my daughter’s death.

“I’m now hoping to take Scarlett home and bury her on our land with a beautiful ceremony.”

The investigations have revealed that Scarlett was partying with the seven boys at a shack till 4 in the morning.

Sub-inspector Nerlon Albuquerque, who was initially investigating the case that was later handed over to inspector Braz Menezes, is in the line of fire with state tourism minister Fransisco Pacheco seeking his dismissal.

State inspector-general of police Kishan Kumar said the investigations were moving in the right direction.

“The investigations were carried out based on the first autopsy report. Why did the doctors not tell the police then about the bruises and the possibility of homicide?” he asked.

The family has filed a complaint against the sub-inspector for “lying to them”.

The first post-mortem recorded only five bruises on the girl’s body. The second found 50 of them, as well as injuries to her genital region.