The CBI moved against former Goa minister Fransisco Pacheco in the illegal immigration racket case after US authorities pushed for action in the matter, sources in the investigating agency have claimed.
American officials had taken a strong cognisance of the racket allegedly being run from India after a few people were found trying to enter the US without valid documents, the CBI sources said. The 46-year-old NCP legislator has been booked by CBI for allegedly using forged documents to send people abroad, especially the US, through his manpower recruitment agency, a charge denied by him.
Pacheco, in his statement to CBI, has said his recruitment agency had sent around 200 people abroad, but the agency is not functioning currently as its licence has lapsed. “I am the proprietor of the agency and before recruitment it is made sure that all the documents are proper,” he told CBI which recorded his statement here on Friday.
The CBI sought details of offices run by Pacheco’s agency in India and abroad, the sources said, adding three mobile phones used by the former state minister had been seized. Pacheco’s house at Betalbhatim, South Goa, was raided on Wednesday and Thursday and his bank accounts have been frozen. —PTI