PANAJI, August 5, 2008 (AFP) - A social welfare group asked a court Tuesday to charge the mother of a 15-year-old British girl who was raped and killed in India's Goa with neglect.

Utt Goenkara, a local privately-funded organisation, has lodged a petition with the district court, saying Scarlett Keeling died because her mother had left her alone in Goa, an area with a reputation for widespread drug abuse.

The girl's mother, Fiona MacKeown, was travelling elsewhere in India when police believe two men gave Keeling a cocktail of illegal drugs before one of them repeatedly raped her and left her for dead in February.

Keeling's body, stripped of shorts and underwear, was found on the popular Anjuna Beach. A bartender and an alleged drug dealer were arrested in March for conspiracy to murder her.

Utt Goenkara said MacKeown had failed in her duties as a parent.

'The Central Bureau of Investigations, which is now probing the girl's rape-and-murder, should also charge the British mother with wilful neglect,' Aires Rodrigues, a lawyer for Utt Goenkara, said in Panaji, Goa's capital.

If charged with neglect and then convicted, MacKeown could face jail time.

MacKeown was not available for comment, but her lawyer said she denied the accusations.

'We are taking adequate measures against such false allegations. The charge has not been substantiated by any admissible evidence,' Vikram Varma told AFP.

MacKeown has accused authorities of covering up the murder after police initially dismissed Keeling's death as drowning.