Panaji: An aide of Fransisco Pacheco, who is charged in the murder of his woman friend Nadia Torrado, has challenged a lower court order’s rejecting the former Goa minister’s anticipatory bail plea and claims the politician is being framed.
The Goa bench of the High Court has fixed the hearing of the petition filed by Lyndon Monteiro, Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to Fransisco Pacheco, on June 14.
Monteiro, in his anticipatory bail plea, has said Pacheco was being framed in the case because he had demanded an investigation into the alleged involvement of a senior politician's son in the nexus between drug peddlers and the state police.
"It is pertinent to note that recently Fransisco Pacheco, in his capacity as Tourism Minister, had written a letter to Chief Minister about rampant use of drugs in Goa; the police and political nexus with the drug dealers and its affect on tourism," says the petition filed by Monteiro.
Pacheco had requested the Chief Minister to probe into the involvement of the son of an influential politician in the drug racket, he said.
"The same was not liked by the other Cabinet colleagues who are trying to cover up and save the said politician's son as is also evident from the recent statements made by Chief Minister himself," the petition said.
"The death of Nadia Torrado is, therefore, being used as an issue to nail the minister and falsely implicate him -- who (Pacheco) has since resigned and has even been replaced by a new person."
Pacheco and Monteiro have been on the run after Torrado, 28, allegedly drank poison on May 30 and killed herself.
"As the minister is not traceable, applicant (Monteiro) who was the Officer on Special Duty and who has been acting in his official capacity is being harassed by falsely accusing him of destroying evidence and implicating him in the alleged crime," the petition says.
"The minister was also only helping a close family friend in distress and Monteiro has been acting as per the instructions."
In a related incident, the Goa Police have said they will send a team to Orissa and question a woman who worked at Nadia Torrado's residence as a domestic help. The police expect that the domestic help will tell them Pacheco's relation with Nadia and her family.
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