Goemkarponn desk
PANAJI: Consul General of Ireland Gerry Kelly and British Deputy High Commissioner, Western India, Alan Gemmell met Chief Minister Pramod Sawant seeking a speedy trial in the case of rape and murder of a 28-year-old British-Irish woman in 2017.
“It has been five years since Danielle’s murder in Goa in March 2017. Ensuring a quick conclusion to the court case is a significant priority for the British and Irish Governments as well as, of course, for Danielle’s family. We came to Goa together to do all we could to raise the profile of this case and express our concern at the pace of the trial and its impact on Danielle’s family,” Kelly and Gemmell said in a joint statement issued to the media after the meeting.
Danielle’s mother said in a statement that she will pursue the case in Goa. “My precious daughter Danielle’s life was unexpectedly taken from her in a brutally savage attack over five years ago in Goa. I continue to push for a conclusion to the court case, in the hope that I may then try and rebuild mine and my family’s lives with the knowledge that I have done everything in my power that I could possibly do to get justice for Danielle,” she said.
British-Irish national was on holiday when she was hit with a bottle before she was raped, murdered and had her face ‘smashed beyond recognition’ with a stone by Bhagat, who was charged with murder, rape, destruction of evidence and theft.
He has been in custody since 2017 and the murder trial that began on April 6, 2018 at Additional Sessions Court in Margao.