Cops seek custody of Goa ex-minister in Nadia suicide case
The Goa police strongly opposed the anticipatory bail application of the former tourism minister Micky Pacheco and his arrest in the Nadia Torrado case appeared imminent.Pacheco has become the prime suspect in a case now being treated as a homicide.
The police told the Margao Sessions Court hearing the bail plea on Wednesday that Pacheco’s custodial interrogation was crucial to investigations because a lot of the evidence leading to the circumstances of Nadia’s death had been deliberately destroyed.
The court will rule on Pacheco’s application on Thursday, but earlier in the day it turned down the anticipatory bail for his aide, Lyndon Monteiro who is also chairman of Goa Tourism Development Corporation. Monteiro had access to Nadia’s house and may have helped get rid of the evidence, police said.
Nadia’s laptop missing
The 27-year-old had injuries on her body, some of them caused by a blunt instrument. These had been inflicted a day or two before her suicide bid on May 15, the court was told.
According to the police Pacheco had been s alone with Nadia in her house at 8 p.m. on May 14. The same night she tried to desperately reach her husband, Winston Barreto, who works at a five star resort. Nadia had filed for a divorce from her husband.
The court was also told that crucial documents and airline tickets that suggested Nadia had travelled abroad as the spouse of a VIP five months ago, had been burnt on the instructions of Nadia’s mother, Sonia Torrado.
The crucial turnaround in the case came after women’s groups intervened to ask for a second post-mortem in what was being treated as a simple case of suicide. Nadia’s family who the police say is shielding the ex-minister, moved the High Court on Wednesday asking for a CBI enquiry into her death.
