Updated
Panaji, Apr 23 (IANS): In a late development, South Goa additional District and Sessions judge P Sawaikar on Wednesday stayed the warrant issued by a trial court to search the official residence of Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar at 10 Akbar Road in New Delhi for a former Goa minister, who has been reported missing for over a fortnight.
The order staying the search warrant was issued late on Wednesday night according to chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar.
"It was been stayed. The police had gone in appeal against the (lower) court's direction to issue search warrant," Parsekar confirmed to IANS over telephone.
Following the stay granted late on Wednesday, the Additional District Sessions court is expected to hear arguments over issue of the search warrant on Thursday.
Earlier in the day, the Judicial Magistrate First Class (Margao) Bosco Roberts, was conducting proceedings related to the formal arrest of former Archives and Archaeology minister Pacheco, whose conviction for an assault was upheld by the Supreme Court earlier this month.
Pacheco has been untraceable and missing for over two weeks.
The search warrant had directed police to search Parrikar's official residence in Delhi to trace Pacheco after the petitioner, lawyer-activist Aires Rodrigues, told the trial court that Pacheco was seen in the vicinity of 10, Akbar Road in New Delhi, Parrikar's official residence.
In his reply submitted to the court, police officer Uttam Rautdessai, in charge of the Colva police station which has been tasked with serving the arrest warrant on Pacheco, said the investigation revealed that the former minister had left Goa for Delhi on April 8. He was booked at Hotel Royal Plaza at Ashoka Road in the national capital till April 12.
Rautdessai, however, conceded that his team was unable to arrest the former minister when in Delhi. He also said that police were in the process of tracking down the bank accounts of the former minister and trying to track down his recent expenses.
Pacheco, who faces six-month imprisonment and a fine of Rs.1,500 for assaulting a junior engineer of the state electricity department in 2006, has been missing and untraceable ever since the Supreme Court upheld his conviction earlier this month.
Earlier Report
Search warrant for defence minister's house in Delhi
Panaji, Apr 22 (IANS): A Goa trial court on Wednesday issued a search warrant for Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar's official residence in Delhi for former archives and archaeology minister Francisco Pacheco, who has been reported missing for a fortnight.
The trial court was conducting proceedings related to the formal arrest of Pacheco, whose conviction for an assault was upheld by the Supreme Court earlier this month. Pacheco has been missing for over two weeks now.
The search warrant directs the police to search Parrikar's official residence in Delhi, to trace Pacheco, after the petitioner, a lawyer-activist Aires Rodrigues, told the trial court that Pacheco was seen in the vicinity of 10, Akbar Road in New Delhi.
Pacheco, who faces six months' imprisonment and a fine of Rs.1,500 for assaulting a junior engineer of the state electricity department in 2006, has been 'missing' ever since the Supreme Court upheld his conviction earlier this month.
The search warrant for 10, Akbar Road, New Delhi, along with a fresh arrest warrant to be served on Pacheco, was issued by Judicial Magistrate First Class Bosco Roberts in Margao, located 35 km from here.