Parrikar condones police failure to nab convicted minister

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Monday tried to condone Goa Police for their inability to nab a convicted former minister Francisco Pacheco, who has been on the run for nearly a month now, and said if needed they could take help of other police forces.

When asked if it was a complete failure of the police machinery to nab Pacheco, Parrikar, a former Goa chief minister said: "That is for the police to work on. This is not the first time it is happening...I don't want to comment on it any further because it is for the police to work on it. If they want, they can take help of other police force."

Pacheco, a former archives and archaeology minister and a ruling party legislator, has been on the run ever since the Supreme Court of India last month upheld his conviction in a 2006 assault case, in which a junior engineer attached to the state government's power department was injured.

Two weeks ago, a trial court issued a warrant to search 10, Akbar road, the official residence of Parrikar in New Delhi as the defence miunhister, after the petitioner activist-lawyer Aires Rodrigues alleged that Pacheco was hiding there.

The search warrant was put on hold later that day after the state government appealed to the District and Sessions Court arguing that searching Parrikar's residence would cause embarrassment to the country.

Parrikar now claims that he was, in fact, surprised, when he heard about the search warrant for his New Delhi home.

"It was quite a surprise to me also because I had moved into my residence only on the previous day..." Parrikar said.

While refusing to comment further on the subject, Parrikar exhorted the media to take a call on publishing news stories which were planted by people with a "crooked mind".

"Why should you ask me? You should yourself decide on such matters. I don't think I intend to comment on it any further," Parrikar said.