Panaji:
Goa's missing ex-Minister of Tourism Mickey Pacheco has applied for anticipatory bail in a Goa court.
The court will hear the plea tomorrow. The prosecution has complained that Pacheco is not cooperating with the police. Pacheco's Officer on Special Duty (OSD) OSD, Lyndon Monteiro has also filed an anticipatory bail application as he too fears arrest.
Mickey Pacheco had 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 then went missing and still is. All police stations in Goa had been informed that Pacheco had gone missing.
Nadia had died in a Chennai hospital recently after she allegedly consumed poison. Trouble started for the NCP minister when women's 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 she accidentally used a tube of rat poison mistaking it for toothpaste.
In his anticipatory bail plea Mickey Pacheco has said he is innocent. He has pointed to the fact that Nadia's family says she consumed poison by mistake.
He has termed allegations against him as "absurd, far-fetched and baseless" and assured the court that he won't jump bail, tamper with evidence or influence witnesses.
He has also said that his name has been dragged into the case by political rivals to destroy his career and has alleged that the police are acting at the behest of those rivals.
Police have said that though it is too early to say if the former minister is involved in the young woman's death, they believe he is connected in some way to the case.
Pacheco, 46, quit from as minister stating that he wanted the police to conduct a free and fair inquiry into the incident.
(With PTI inputs)
The court will hear the plea tomorrow. The prosecution has complained that Pacheco is not cooperating with the police. Pacheco's Officer on Special Duty (OSD) OSD, Lyndon Monteiro has also filed an anticipatory bail application as he too fears arrest.
Mickey Pacheco had 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 then went missing and still is. All police stations in Goa had been informed that Pacheco had gone missing.
Nadia had died in a Chennai hospital recently after she allegedly consumed poison. Trouble started for the NCP minister when women's 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 she accidentally used a tube of rat poison mistaking it for toothpaste.
In his anticipatory bail plea Mickey Pacheco has said he is innocent. He has pointed to the fact that Nadia's family says she consumed poison by mistake.
He has termed allegations against him as "absurd, far-fetched and baseless" and assured the court that he won't jump bail, tamper with evidence or influence witnesses.
He has also said that his name has been dragged into the case by political rivals to destroy his career and has alleged that the police are acting at the behest of those rivals.
Police have said that though it is too early to say if the former minister is involved in the young woman's death, they believe he is connected in some way to the case.
Pacheco, 46, quit from as minister stating that he wanted the police to conduct a free and fair inquiry into the incident.
(With PTI inputs)
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