Goa Governor Mridula Sinha has sent a petition seeking pardon filed on behalf of jailed former Minister and Nuvem MLA Mickky Pacheco to the Chief Secretary for examination.
Mr. Pacheco, who has been convicted and jailed for slapping a junior engineer of the State Electricity Department, is undergoing six-month jail term. He had surrendered before a JMFC court in Margao after evading arrest for nearly two months after the Supreme Court had rejected his review petition.
The family of the MLA had filed the petition before the State government last week.
Sources in the government said that the petition, after examination by Chief Secretary, will have to be placed before the Cabinet for approval before going to the Governor once again.
Meanwhile, activist lawyer Aires Rodrigues on Wednesday called on the Governor and told her that attending the monsoon session of the Assembly which begins on July, 27 is not a matter of right for Pacheco.
Mr. Rodrigues told the Governor that Speaker Rajendra Arlekar has to act within the parameters of law and legislative precedents and cannot show undue favour to Pacheco just because he is supporting the BJP government.
He said that the power of pardon cannot be misused to rescue Pacheco whose conviction by four courts was upheld even by the Supreme Court.
But, activist says that the jailed MLA should not be spared.
