Goa court rejects ministerial aide’s anticipatory bail plea

MARGAO - A court here rejected the anticipatory bail of Goa’s former Tourism Minister Mickey Pacheco’s officer on special duty (OSD) Lyndon Monteiro on Wednesday.

Last week, Pacheco was forced to resign as state’s Tourism Minister after his name figured in the mysterious death of his 27-year-old companion Nadia Torrado.

Pacheco has been missing since then.

Pacheco is a member of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

On Tuesday, Pacheco appealed for anticipatory bail, saying he is being defamed by political rivals, but did not appear in court.

The police claim it has no idea where Pacheco might be, which is odd for a man of his local prominence.

The court is likely to take up Pacheco’s matter later today.

Documents filed by Goa Police in the Margao Sessions Court show that Nadia suffered serious injuries from a blunt weapon.

In its report, the Goa Police has stated that evidence relating to Nadia’s death was destroyed.

The post-mortem shows 11 injuries on Nadia’s arms, thighs, lower lip and chest, allowing the police to now confirm what many womens’ groups have argued all along - that Nadia’s death was not a case of simple suicide.

Police claim that Nadia’s mobile phone, passport, laptop and the rat poison tube she is alleged to have consumed have disappeared.

Nadia died on May 30 in a Chennai hospital.

She had consumed rat poison a fortnight earlier. She was first taken to a hospital in Goa, then moved to Mumbai, and finally to Chennai. (ANI)