TEAM HERALD
MARGAO: Beleaguered Goa Vikas Party Supremo Mickky Pacheco on Saturday told South Goa MP Francisco Sardinha that he did not stand by him when he was being harassed by IT sleuths in the last five years.
Sardinha, however, sounded sympathetic with Mickky saying the six IT raids on the Nuvem MLA was a bad thing to happen and indicated bad intention and failure of the department.
“We had supported you in the Lok Sabha election, but no one has helped me and I have been left to suffer alone”, Mickky told the MP at the inauguration of the Betalbatim playground under the MPLAD scheme at Betalbatim on Saturday.
“I know that you will not be able to do anything now since your tenure is over. But I ask you to ensure that people are not harassed if you get elected again in the coming polls”, Mickky said. He, however, put up a brave front saying that no one will be able to do anything or take away anything from him, while directing his ire at P Chidambaram, accusing
the Union Finance Minister for virtually throwing his family on the streets by sealing his house, vehicles and bank accounts.
“I am sad that as an MLA, they should have given me the opportunity to move around in the constituency in my vehicles. No one has helped me during these raids. I have been facing the raids alone. We have elected Sardinha, but no one has helped me. I am suffering here”, he said in the presence of the South Goa MP.
Reacting to Mickky’s charge of harassment via the IT raids, Sardinha in his address, said, “It is indeed sad that Mickky has been raided six times. We can understand one or two raids, but six raids means that the intention is bad. It also shows the failure of the raiding department”, Sardinha said at Betalbatim this evening after the Nuvem MLA drew his attention to the recent IT raids at his Betalbatim residence.
“We are just MPs. I have been a Chief Minister, Minister and an MLA, but we did not go after anyone. We have only done positive things. I am always there to help people”, he said.
When the media later asked him that the raids on Mickky had come during the Congress-led UPA regime, Sardinha said “it is not necessary that the government orders any raid on anyone. May be chits might have gone from the state as well”.
Though the South Goa MP was sympathetic to the Nuvem MLA, he made it clear that he cannot take up the case with the centre since curtains have come down on the Parliament session.
