While erstwhile Goa tourism minister Mickky Pacheco remained untraceable for the third day, his officer on special duty Lyndon Monteiro filed an anticipatory bail plea on his behalf at the Margao sessions court on Monday.
During interrogation on Friday — the day before he disappeared — Mr Pacheco had told crime branch officials that he had gone out for dinner with his girlfriend Torrado the night she consumed rat poison.
That, and the fact that the first post-mortem report that arrived on Monday from Chennai mentions that Torrado’s body bore at least 12 injury marks now clearly puts Mr Pacheco in trouble. Since he was one of the last persons to have met Ms Torrado, the police are now wondering whether to charge Mr Pacheco with culpable homicide.
Police sources say that the post-mortem report mentions that the injury marks were spread all over Torrado’s body, including the forearm, upper arm, wrist, thigh, legs, back, shoulder and chest. The nature of the injuries, however, was not divulged.
The Digambar Kamat government on Monday, meanwhile, celebrated three years in power and the organisers took great pains at keeping any reminders of Mr Mickky Pacheco at bay during the function. The chief minister released a book “Golden Glow” during the event which commemorated the third anniversary. While the book had pictures of all other ministers, Mr Pacheco’s had been conveniently left out. “The book was printed last night,” the chief minister told reporters after the ceremony.