Mannion speaks to reporters on Monday. (AFP)

Mumbai/Panjim, March 17: Michael Mannion, the Briton who claimed he saw Scarlett Keeling being raped on Anjuna beach, today deposed before Goa police.

Mannion alias Masala Mike had told British tabloids that he had run away from Goa fearing for his safety after Scarlett’s death. In his interviews with the tabloids, he had mentioned a man called Murli, an employee of Curlie’s shack — a bar-cum-café in Anjuna — who he said had offered Scarlett a lift on his scooter up to the shack on the night of February 17.

Mannion today told police Scarlett arrived at Lui’s Café, another beach joint, around 3.30am in a “very inebriated state” and stayed for more than an hour in the kitchen.

Scarlett, Mannion said, left the café around 5am with a man after telling him the man would take her home.

Mannion said he left the café five minutes after Scarlett. He saw her escort leaving in a scooter, but in the glare of the vehicle’s headlight, he spotted Lui’s café bartender Samson D’Souza on top of Scarlett in the parking area. Samson was removing Scarlett’s clothes, but Mannion could not say if the sex was consensual.

On February 18, Scarlett was found dead on Anjuna beach.

“In his deposition today, Mannion told the police he was upset when he saw Samson sexually assaulting Scarlett since he knew she was just 15,” said Vikram Verma, the lawyer of Scarlett’s mother Fiona Mackeown.

“Though he returned to the rented room in Samson’s house, he had an argument with Samson when he returned around 6am. Samson threatened him with dire consequences if he went to the police.”

Mannion told the police he was scared and unsure of what to do. So, he left Goa on February 23 and went to Mumbai, Delhi and other places before the British High Commission convinced him to return.

Mannion’s version of the events partly matches that of inspector-general of police Kishan Kumar.

Kumar had said the accused, Samson and Placido Carvalho, a drug peddler, were with Scarlett in the café kitchen where she was given alcohol and drugs like LSD, Ecstasy and Cocaine. He said Samson had sexually assaulted Scarlett twice before abandoning her.

He said Scarlett was completely under the influence of drugs and did not make any movement, giving the impression the sex was consensual.

Local sources said when Fiona arrived in Goa with her children in November 2007, she was often seen at Curlie’s shack with Scarlett’s boyfriend Julio Lobo. The shack was frequented by Roy Naik, son of Goa home minister Ravi Naik. “Roy Naik had rented one of his two houses to Fiona’s large family,” said Verma.

Mackeown has accused the minister of having a nexus with the drug mafia.