Goa Police asked about progress in locating convicted minister

A Goa court on Monday asked police to submit details of all efforts taken to arrest convicted former minister Francisco Pacheco, who has been missing for nearly three weeks.

Margao Judicial Magistrate First Class Pooja Kavlekar also asked the inspector in-charge of Colva police station, to submit the details of the search operation and other formalities conducted by them since April 9, when the court had issued an arrest warrant.

Pacheco, a former archives and archaeology minister, whose party is part of the BJP-led coalition government in Goa, is on the run after his conviction in a 2006 assault case was upheld by the Supreme Court a month back.

On April 23, the Margao court had issued a warrant to search Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar's official residence in New Delhi, after a petitioner-lawyer alleged that Pacheco was hiding there.

The state government, however, managed to secure a stay on the search warrant, after appealing to an appellate court.

The court in an earlier observation also said that it was "embarrassing" that police were not able to arrest a former minister and a sitting legislator.

Pacheco's former cabinet colleague minister for art and culture Dayanand Mandrekar on Saturday has also suggested that the 'missing' minister may have escaped abroad.

Pacheco has been embroiled in a whole range of cases, other than the 2006 assault, including culpable homicide, bigamy, assault and extortion.

He is also being probed for illegal trafficking and money laundering by the US government's Bureau of Diplomatic Security and was questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation in this regard in 2010.

Pacheco was also accused of abetting the suicide of his woman friend Nadia Torrado in 2010.

However, some time after the 2012 state assembly elections and the BJP's ascent to power on the shoulders of the present coalition, Crime Branch officials claimed that due to lack of evidence filing a closure report was imminent.