Within hours after being remanded to judicial custody in the Nadia Torrado death case, former Goa Tourism Minister Fransisco Mickey Pacheco was shifted to a government hospital as he complained of chest pain.
"He has been admitted to Intensive Care Unit and we are monitoring his condition," a doctor at Hospicio Hospital, Margao told PTI. Pacheco's friends said that he was down with hyper-tension and was in pain while being in the process to be shifted to judicial custody.
The NCP legislator is booked in connection with the death of his 28-year-old woman friend Nadia, who died allegedly after consuming poison. Pacheco had surrendered before session court, this morning after remaining in hiding for almost a month.
The session court had rejected his interim bail plea remanding him for two days judicial custody. The court will be hearing his petition for regular bail on Monday even as Crime Branch, probing Nadia's death, moved an application stating that they need custodial interrogation of the former minister.
Crime Branch investigating Nadia's death has booked Pacheco and his close aide Lyndon Monteiro for culpable homicide and destruction of evidence respectively. Pacheco's lawyer seeking interim bail today argued that although his client has been made an accused in the case, there is nothing on record to specify his involvement in the crime.
Pacheco's lawyer also said the doctors at Apollo Hospital in Goa, where Nadia was brought immediately after she allegedly consumed poison on May 15, had stated that there were no marks on her body. "Even the doctors at Jupiter Hospital in Thane near Mumbai (where she was shifted later) had ruled out any bruises," the lawyer said.
The Crime Branch sought Pacheco's custodial interrogation suspecting his involvement in assaulting Nadia. It questioned Monteiro at its office in Dona Paula. He was given anticipatory bail by Supreme Court. The former OSD, who also held key posts like vice chairman of Goa Tourism Development Corporation, appeared before Crime Branch this morning.
"I have full faith in the judiciary. I will provide all the necessary cooperation required to investigate Nadia's death, which is actually a suicide," Monteiro told PTI. He said he was not hiding but was at his residence at Verna, 25 km from in Panaji.
"I was busy approaching courts seeking anticipatory bail. Police came to my house only once when I was not there. They never visited again," he said. He denied the charge levelled by the police. Pacheco had resigned on June 5, a day after he was quizzed by Crime Branch. PTI
