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Former Goa tourism minister Francisco Mickey Pacheco has moved the Supreme Court seeking anticipatory bail in connection with the death of his friend Nadia Torrado in Chennai.
The bail plea is likely to be listed for hearing on Thursday. The Goa bench of the Bombay high court had on June 21 rejected the anticipatory bail plea of Pacheco. It had also turned down the bail plea of his close aide Lyndon Monteiro on technical grounds. Both are accused in the case registered following the death of Nadia, 28, who passed away after allegedly consuming poison on May 30 in Chennai.
The police have charged Pacheco with culpable homicide while Monteiro has been accused of destroying evidence.
The bench, while rejecting the bail plea, had said the offence was of a serious nature and custodial interrogation was required in the case. Monteiro's bail plea was rejected on the ground that his counsel did not bring on record the fact that he had withdrawn his anticipatory bail plea from the high court on an earlier occasion, after he was asked to be present in person.
The sessions court in Margao had earlier rejected the anticipatory bail pleas of Pacheco and Monteiro. The police claimed that Nadia's body had 14 bruise marks which were noticed during the post-mortem conducted in Chennai soon after her death.
The crime branch, which had interrogated Pacheco on June 5, sought custodial interrogation of the accused as they were yet to recover two mobiles and a laptop belonging to Nadia.