JMFC orders Mickky's arrest, but in 7 days
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 09 April 2015 22:26 IST
Judicial Magistrate First Class of Margao has issued an order to arrest Nuvem MLA Mickky Pacheco within seven days.
Mickky is reportedly camping in the national capital.
Pooja Kavalekar, the JMFC Margao, upheld the plea filed by Aires Rodrigues and dismissed the counter-plea filed by Lyndon Monteiro, general secretary of the Goa Vikas Party.
Aires had initially approached the high court with the similar plea, which was dismissed.
The Supreme Court had upheld the lower court decision to send Mickky for six-month jail term in a case of assault on a government official nine years ago.
After Kapil Natekar, the electrical engineer, had won the case of Mickky assaulting him in 2006, the Nuvem MLA lost the case practically in every court but managed to escape arrest till now.
Following Supreme Court’s final verdict on 30 March, Mickky had stepped down as the minister in the BJP government. He was sworn in hardly five months ago.
After the high court dismissed his petition, Aires approached the JMFC Margao with the plea to order Mickky’s arrest.
While the order was to be pronounced, Monteiro came up with a fresh plea in retaliation, seeking time to approach the high court once again.
The JMFC however dismissed Monteiro’s plea.
While seven days is time to act upon, it has to be seen who acts first – the police to arrest him or Mickky approaching the higher court, in this case the District and Sessions Court.
Though he stepped down, Mickky’s two-member GVP is still the alliance partner of the BJP-led government.
In fact Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar has decided not to fill Mickky's vacancy immediately.
Mickky has also filed a review petition in the Supreme Court which he is awaiting to come up this week.
