Panaji: The minister who followed his resignation in Goa with a disappearing act has now been named the main accused in the mysterious death of his girlfriend, Nadia Torrado. He's still missing, but now Mickky Pacheco, the state's Tourism Minister till last weekend, has been charged formally with culpable homicide not amounting to murder, abetting suicide and destruction of evidence.
A Goa court has also rejected Pachecho's application for anticipatory bail. The Goa police claims it has no idea where Pachecho might be. Despite all local police stations being alerted, nobody has apparently spotted one of Goa's most prominent and brash political leaders.
That's almost as bewildering as the explanation offered by Pacheco and Torrado's family for how she died. On May 15, they say, she was reaching for what she thought was a tube of toothpaste. She ended up eating an entire tube of rat poison. Torrado was moved first to a Goa hospital, then to Mumbai, and finally to Chennai where she died on May 30.
Since then - the police has argued in court - evidence has emerged that suggests Pacheco and the Torrado family are partners in a conspiracy of silence, one that may have been bought by the former minister for Rs 40 lakh. The Torrados confirm this amount was paid to them by Pacheco, but say it was meant to cover Nadia's medical bills.
They also contest a post-mortem report that shows Nadia had 11 injuries, inflicted with a weapon, before she died. The police believes the attacker was Pachecho. The family, on Thursday, continued to extend its support to Pacheco, suggesting that the post-mortem report was doctored.
Nadia's laptop, cellphone and the tube of rat poison that killed her are missing. The police has stated that the Torrados burnt crucial evidence. The family says that what it set on fire was limited to hospital towels used to clean Nadia, and household trash, as part of preparing their house for her funeral.
If Nadia's death was a suicide, hazards the police, it was a forced one. While Pachecho and the Torrados say the amount of rat poison she ate was small, the size of a portion of toothpaste you'd use while brushing, the police says Nadia consumed an entire tubes worth.