Panaji, Apr 3: Goa rural development agency minister Francisco Mickky Pacheco, whose conviction for abusing and slapping a government servant was upheld by the Supreme Court earlier this week, has resigned from the cabinet, reports said on Friday.
An FIR was lodged against Pacheco in July 2006 by Kapil Natekar, a junior engineer with the electrical department, alleging that Pacheco (who was a minister then too) abused and slapped him in his chamber.
Natekar had been called to the minister's office for not attending a telephone call by Pacheco's personal assistant.
Pacheco, an MLA of Goa Vikas Party, was inducted in the state cabinet in November last year after then chief minister Manohar Parrikar was inducted into the Union cabinet.
The Supreme Court bench of justice FMI Kalifulla and justice Shiva Kirti Singh this week dismissed Pacheco's special leave petition.
The minister has been sentenced to six-month imprisonment.
A judicial magistrate at Margao had convicted Pacheco and sentenced him to one-year jail term and a fine of Rs 5,000. But an appellate court reduced the jail term to six months and the fine to Rs 1,500.
The sentence was set aside upon revision plea and he was released on 'admonition' under Probation of Offenders' Act, but the HC overturned this ruling.
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