TEAM HERALD
NEW DELHI: Goa’s Rural Development Minister Francisco Xavier alias Mickky Pacheco will have to undergo a six-month jail term, with the Supreme Court, Monday, dismissing his appeal against the July 17, 2014 verdict of the Bombay High Court in the Electricity Department engineer assault case.
The High Court had held Pacheco, now a Goa Vikas Party legislator from Nuvem, guilty in its verdict for assaulting engineer Kapil Natekar in 2006 in the latter’s office following an argument.
The SC bench of Justices Fakkir Mohd Ibrahim Kalifulla and Shiva Kirti Singh concurred with the Bombay High Court approving six months of jail awarded to Pacheco for assaulting the engineer on duty and confirmed the verdict of the District and Sessions judge of Margao.
The bench found no merit in intervening in the case. This was the second hearing in the case for an ex-parte stay. After hearing Pacheco’s lawyers Pawan Kishore Singh and Madhusmita Bora on February 23, the bench had fixed further hearing on March 30.
The Goa bench of the High Court had set aside the December 2012 verdict of South Goa Additional Sessions court, which had “brought down” the conviction of the MLA under Section 323 (causing hurt) from the harsher Section 353 (assaulting public servant to deter from duty) under the IPC and, instead of sentencing him, ordered his release on ‘admonition’ under the Probation of Offenders Act saying, “Please be a public servant in the real sense of the term.”
Over a year back in January 2013, the High Court had registered suo motu the writ petition into the admonition order after disposing of criminal applications filed by Aires Rodrigues and Sudip Tamhankar challenging the same.
Earlier on April 27, 2011, the then Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) Margao D M Kerkar had held Pacheco guilty under Section 353 of IPC for assaulting a public servant and sentenced him to simple imprisonment for one year with a fine of Rs 5,000.
The former NCP leader thereafter appealed against the order before South Goa Assistant Sessions Judge Irshad Aga, who on October 5, 2011 upheld the conviction but reduced imprisonment to six months with a fine to Rs 1,500. Pacheco once again challenged the order before the additional sessions judge who released him on admonition.
After its verdict the High Court, had given two weeks time to the MLA to surrender, and upheld the decision of the Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) Margao.
The apex court, in July last year, had admitted Mickky’s SLP for hearing and exempted him from the surrender to undergo imprisonment.
An FIR was lodged on July 15, 2006 by Kapil Natekar, a junior engineer of the Electrical Department, against then minister Pacheco, alleging that he was abused and slapped by the lawmaker in his chamber.
Natekar was called to the minister’s office as he had not taken a telephone call of Mickky’s personal assistant, the day before the incident.
