Panaji:
The Goa police say former tourism minister Fransisco Pacheco has not yet been traced. Pacheco resigned on Saturday, a day after the police interrogated him in connection with the death of his friend Nadia Torrado, a 28-year-old woman. He has since been missing. All police stations in Goa have been informed.
Police say it's too early to say if he is involved, and that they need to investigate more. But they believe he is connected in some way to the case.
Pacheco, 46, quit from his post stating that he wanted the police to conduct free and fair inquiry into the incident.
Nadia had died in a Chennai hospital last Sunday after she allegedly consumed poison. Trouble started for the NCP minister when women organisations accused him of being responsible for her death.
However, Nadia's family members, including her estranged husband Wilson Barretto, have stood by Pacheco saying his wife accidentally used a tube of rat poison mistaking it for toothpaste.