Goa woman's death: Pacheco's bail plea rejected

The Bombay High Court bench on Monday rejected the anticipatory bail plea of former Goa Tourism Minister Francisco Mickey Pacheco in connection with the death of his friend Nadia Torrado.

Justice A S Oak also rejected the anticipatory bail petition filed by Pacheco's close aide Lyndon Monteiro on technical grounds. Both are accused in the death of 28-year-old Nadia who died after consuming poison on May 30 in Chennai.

Police have charged Pacheco with culpable homicide while Monteiro has been accused of destroying the evidence.

Upholding the arguments by public prosecutor Carlos Fereira, the bench ruled that the offence is of serious nature and custodial interrogation is required in this case. The judge also said circumstances in this case were suspicious, especially Pacheco's presence in Mumbai when the dying declaration was recorded.

The court, rejecting Monteiro's bail plea, pointed out that the lawyer did not mention on record that he had withdrawn his anticipatory bail plea from the High Court on an earlier occasion after he was asked to remain present in person. "This is suppression of fact that he was directed to remain present in the court," the Judge told Surendra Desai, the lawyer representing Monteiro.

The judge said the circumstances hadn't changed when Monteiro had earlier filed anticipatory bail plea and now. Earlier this month, the session's court in Margao had rejected the anticipatory bail plea of Pacheco and Monteiro.

Police pointed out that Nadia's body had 14 bruise marks which were noticed during the post-mortem conducted on her body in Chennai soon after her death. Crime branch, which had interrogated Pacheco on June 5 for over eight hours, said they wanted custodial interrogation of the accused as they are yet to recover two mobiles and a laptop belonging to Nadia.