SC dismisses Goa MLA Pacheco's plea seeking more time to surrender

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the plea of a Goa MLA Francisco Xavier alias Mickky Pacheco, convicted and sentenced for six months for abusing and slapping a junior engineer as a minister in 2006, seeking extension of time to surrender to undergo the jail term. [caption id=“attachment_2238730” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Supreme Court. AFP[/caption] A bench of Justices F M I Kalifulla and Shiva Kirti Singh rejected Pacheco’s petition seeking four weeks to surrender before the Goa Police. A Goa Vikas Party MLA from Nuvem assembly seat, Pacheco, had contended that he is a member of Goa Legislative Assembly and being an elected representative he had certain assignments in his constituency for which he needed more time. He had also mentioned in his plea that his petition seeking review of the 30 March order of the apex court was also pending. The Supreme Court had on 30 March dismissed the Goa legislator’s appeal against the verdict of Bombay High Court and said he would have to undergo a six-month jail term. The Goa bench of the High Court had set aside the verdict of a revisional court, which had “brought down” the conviction of the MLA under Section 323 (causing hurt) from the harsher section 353 (assaulting public servant to deter from duty) under the IPC and, instead of sentencing him, ordered his release on ‘admonition’ under the Probation of Offenders Act. The High Court, which had given two weeks time to the MLA to surrender, upheld the decision of a lower appellate court to award him a jail term of six months besides a fine of Rs 1,500 in the case. The apex court, in July last year, had admitted the MLA’s Special Leave Petition for hearing and exempted him from surrendering to undergo imprisonment. An FIR was lodged on 15 July, 2006 by Kapil Natekar, a junior engineer of the government’s Electrical Department, against then minister Pacheco, alleging that he was abused and slapped by the lawmaker in his chamber. Natekar was called to the minister’s office as a telephone call of the latter’s personal assistant was not attended to a day before the incident. A Judicial Magistrate at Margao had convicted the lawmaker and sentenced him to one-year jail term and a fine of Rs 5,000. However, an appellate court partly allowed the appeal of the MLA and reduced the jail term to 6 months and the fine to Rs 1,500. However, a revisional court brought down the conviction under milder section 323 of the IPC and allowed the convict to walk free on ‘admonition’ under Section 3 of Probation of Offenders Act. This was reversed by the High Court. PTI