Panaji : An ailing grandmother, three trauma-prone minor children, concern for constituents and hypertension are some of the grounds which could have ‘convinced’ the BJP-led Goa government to pardon convicted legislator Francisco Pacheco.
The BJP-led government in an unprecedented and unanimous decision on Wednesday resolved to grant pardon to Pacheco, a former archives and archaeology minister, who is currently serving a six-month sentence in an assault case.
The cabinet decision now awaits the assent of Goa Governor Mridula Sinha, under section 161 of the Constitution, which grants her the power to pardon suspend, remit or commute sentences in certain cases. The cabinet note in possession of IANS in which chief secretary R.K. Srivastava summarises the list of grounds mentioned by Pacheco in his petition to the cabinet, one of which lists an ailing grandmother.
“That he has an aged mother who is more than 89 years of age and is having multiple health complications and has undergone a number of surgeries in the recent past and she requires constant care and aid,” the note said.
Pacheco, a legislator from Nuvem assembly constituency, is currently being tried for a wide range of criminal cases which include culpable homicide, bigamy, assault and extortion. The note said Pacheco “has three young children aged about 11 years, 9 years and six years studying in school and his family members are disturbed, distressed and pained because of the impugned conviction and incarceration which has entailed untold hardships to them.”
Pacheco was jailed on June 1 after SC upheld his conviction in the 2006 case in which he was accused of assaulting a govt employee. He was also grilled by the elite Central Bureau of Investigation in 2010 in connection of an illegal trafficking and money laundering case.
