Unfair to target Manohar Parrikar over absconding ex-Minister: Goa CM

Fransisco Miccky Pacheco, who is on the run to avoid arrest in an assault case, and claimed it was a move to defame him.

"To defame the Defence Minister in such a way is unfair. It has created embarrassment across the nation," he told reporters on the sidelines of a business convention here.

Parsekar was asked about the charge levelled by a social activist that Pacheco, a former Minister, was hiding in Parrikar's official residence in New Delhi.

Social activist and lawyer Aires Rodrigues had filed a petition in the lower court claiming Pacheco was seen at 10, Akbar Road, the official bungalow of Parrikar, a former Goa Chief Minister.

Acting on the petition, Judicial Magistrate First Class at Margao, Bosco Roberts, had issued a warrant to search the Defence Minister's residence. The warrant was later stayed by the District court.

Parsekar said it was not expected from Rodrigues to behave in such a way. "This was not expected from Aires. I don't want to comment further and fuel the controversy."

The Chief Minister sarcastically said "only Aires would be knowing where Pacheco is right now."

Pacheco, chief of Goa Vikas Party, a partner in the BJP-led Government in the state, faces six-month imprisonment for assaulting a junior engineer of the Electricity Department in 2006. The Supreme Court has upheld his conviction. Pacheco, a controversial figure in Goa politics, resigned from the Cabinet early this month.