Francisco (Mickky) Pacheco is no stranger to controversy. The one-time protégée of Varca strongman Churchill Alemao has today eclipsed him, defeating Alemao in his own bastion of Benaulim, and then cementing his claim of giant killer by easing out veteran Congressman Aleixo Sequeira.
He has been a minister thrice in the past 13 years, and so Mickky, as he is commonly known, is both a senior politician and one of the most colourful and controversial of them. Interestingly, he has also never got a chance to complete a full five-year term as minister.
He has had a large number of cases against him, ranging from bigamy, assault on a government servant, illegal immigration, abetment to suicide and even money laundering since early 2000.
In 2002, Mickky, who roams around in a Hummer, was booked in a case of road rage when he allegedly assaulted a bus driver and seven years later, in 2009, a traffic police constable in Margao accused Pacheco of abusing and threatening him.
In the same year, the short-tempered legislator, once known for his trademark bandana, was accused by the management of a beach resort casino in Majorda who filed a criminal complaint against him for allegedly extorting Rs 3.69 lakh by assaulting and threatening casino staffers.
Pacehco had flatly denied the allegation and slapped a counter complaint accusing the casino officials of cheating him of Rs 1.25 crore, which he says he had won. The cases are currently pending investigation with crime branch.
His estranged wife Sara Pacheco filed a ‘bigamy’ complaint against him under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 at a trial court in Margao. She had also filed a police complaint charging Pacheco with misappropriation of property, criminal breach of trust, forgery and cheating.
His troubles did not end here. In June 2010, he was forced to quit as Tourism Minister in the Congress-led government after his arrest over the suicide of his ‘friend’ Nadia Torrado.
Simultaneously, he was probed by the US government for illegal immigration of Goan youths to US and money laundering.
In September 2010, CBI and income tax sleuths had raided his house and office at Betalbatim following disclosures about alleged money-laundering. Four years later, in February 2014, IT sleuths once again raided the two premises to confirm their suspicions about Pacheco’s businesses abroad.
The only relief for him was in the case of Torrado’s suicide wherein crime branch sleuths have ruled out his involvement in abetment of the suicide. Pacheco has been given a clean chit in the closure report filed before the Margao court this January, claiming there was no evidence against the 50-year-old politician.
However, in the eight-year-old case of assault on junior engineer Kapil Natekar justice caught up with him as he was convicted and sentenced to six months imprisonment.
Failing to get relief in the local courts, Pacheco had approached Supreme Court for relief but this was turned down. He was not even five months old as RDA minister in the Laxmikant Parsekar-led cabinet.
