Convicted Goa minister Miccky Pacheco to resign soon: Lyndon Monteiro

PANAJI: Goa rural development agency minister Fransisco Miccky Pacheco, whose conviction for assaulting a government servant was upheld by the Supreme Court earlier this week, will resign from the cabinet, a leader from his party said today.

"Pacheco will meet the Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar and soon tender his resignation. He doesn't want to cause embarrassment to the state government," Lyndon Monteiro, General Secretary of Goa Vikas party said this evening.

The minister has been convicted for assaulting a junior engineer.

Pacheco, an MLA of Goa Vikas Party, was inducted in the state cabinet in November last year.

The Supreme Court bench of Justices F M I Kalifulla and Shiva Kirti Singh this week dismissed Pacheco's special leave petition.

The minister has been sentenced to six-month imprisonment. An FIR was lodged against Pacheco in July 2006 by Kapil Natekar, a junior engineer of electrical department, alleging that Pacheco (who was a minister then too) abused and slapped him in his chamber.

Natekar had been called to the minister's office for not attending a telephone call by Pacheco's personal assistant.