Nadia's family allege harassment, seeks CBI probe

Family members of Nadia Torrado alleged on Wednesday that the Goa Police have been pressurising them to make "untrue statements" against former tourism minister Fransisco Mickey Pacheco and sought a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry into her death.

"The police under the pretext of carrying out investigations have been harassing the petitioners and putting them under great mental trauma by directly and indirectly threatening them and pressuring them to make untrue statements," a petition filed by the family before Goa bench of Bombay High Court said. Nadia's mother Sonia claimed SP Mangaldas Naik threatened to implicate her over the phone, if she did not make statements against Pacheco. "This shows that there is not even a slightest possibility of any fair investigations in the matter by the Goa Police and therefore to protect the interest of the petitioners and in the interest of the justice as also to guarantee and protect the fundamental

and statutory rights of the petitioners, it is necessary that the investigation be handed over to some free and impartial agency like CBI," the petition said.

Nadia's family claimed that they have been willing to cooperate in the investigations and have till date lent all possible support to the police. "However, the harassment and ill-treatment tactics adopted by the police are totally inhumane and illegal rude and violate the fundamental rights of the petitioners," it said. Sonia alleged that on the day Nadia died, a team of armed policemen led by inspector Raju Raut and Santosh Desai came to her residence and started ransacking the house. "Police gave us constant threat of dire consequences while they ransacked the house," the family alleged. 28-year-old Nadia died on May 30 in a Chennai hospital after allegedly consuming poison. Pacheco, who was interrogated by Crime Branch in connection with the case, was named the prime suspect by the investigating agency.