Thaindian News

Panaji, June 1 (IANS) A sub-divisional magistrate Tuesday ordered a fresh autopsy of Goa Tourism Minister Mickky Pacheco’s alleged paramour who died after consuming rat poison.
The police are asking why 28-year-old Nadia Torreado took poison. She died in Chennai Sunday, 15 days after consuming the poison.

In response to an application filed by women’s activist Tara Kerkar seeking a fresh autopsy, magistrate Agnelo Fernandes Monday summoned the police and the family of the deceased to give their statements.

“We are trying to probe why she consumed poison. All our energies are channelised in that direction,” Superintendent of Police (South Goa) Allen D’Sa told IANS.

Not ruling out a first information report if there are any suspicious findings, D’Sa said police were also trying to figure out the delay behind the victim’s hospitalization.

“In her statement to the police earlier, she said she consumed poison at around 9 a.m. but she was hospitalized only at 3 p.m. There is an element of delay which needs to be looked into,” he said.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has demanded that the minister should resign from the cabinet or be dropped in order to facilitate an impartial investigation.

A BJP spokesman Monday alleged that the victim was raped and therefore consumed poison.

Pacheco, a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) legislator, also faces a bigamy suit, filed by his first wife Sara Pacheco. It is one several other criminal complaints lodged against him.