Mickky Pacheco, who was facing 6 months term in Jail at Sada has been released almost 50 days before the completion of his term on the account of his good behavior in the jail as narrated by the jail authorities. Based on the news published by the TOI, they have claimed to be the first news agency to report the Mickky’s release on their October 2 edition of a newspaper. According to the sources, Pacheco’s house in Betalbattim witnessed the huge crowd of the supporters lined up to meet him.
According to the Jail supremo, Elvis Gomes, Pacheco has been released after serving four and half month of his six-month term due to his good behavior. Elvis further said that Pacheo had earned the remission points while working in the jail at the bakery. According to him the jail has this term called remission under which the convict can earn the remission points during his or her the sentence period while working in the jail, “It is completely based on the decision of the jail superintendent as how much remission to be given to the prisoner based on this work and good behavior which can go up to 10 days for each month”.
According to the above explanation, Pacheco has received the advantage of 45 days against the four and half month of jail term which he served and 6 days which he had spent earlier in the judicial custody in the similar case. According to the sources, Pacheco had filed an application before the JMFC, Pooja Kavlekar, under section 428 of CrPC seeking the setting off of six days which was allowed by the judge.
According to Elvis Gomes, Pacheco’s release is in accordance with the guidelines set under the Goa Prison Rules, which entitles the prisoner to earn the remission, which can range from 3 days to 10 days per month and Pacheco being lucky had earned 10 days remission every month. According to the jail authorities, there are other prisoners who had earned the remissions but they have not been released due to their longer terms of sentences. According to Mr. Gomes, this is the routine exercise carried out by the jail authorities.
It may be recalled that Pacheco was sentenced to the six month term in 2011 after the lower court passed the judgement in the matter of junior engineer assault case of 2006, but the same was challenged by Pacheco in the high court of Goa but did not manage to get any relief and finally he approached the Supreme Court which upheld the High Court judgement. Subsequent to the Supreme Court verdict Pacheco went missing which resulted into the issue of proclamation notice against him, the JMFC then issued the search warrant for him which concluded by sending him Sub Jail at Sada after his surrender on June 2, 2015 before the JMFC south Goa.
During his jail term, BJP government also made many efforts to get him released from the jail including the pardon appeal filed before the Goa governor Mrudula Sinha but nothing really worked at the end. The sources have revealed that after his release from the jail, Pacheco is very furious on both the national parties, BJP as well as Congress, since according him both the parties have their high command sitting in Delhi and they do not have any decision-making power at the local level. In the press conference organized at his place, he fired the criticism on both Congress and BJP and ruled out any alliance with them in 2017 assembly elections.
Pacheco said that the days spent in the prison gave him enough time to do deep thinking over his political career. He accused the BJP leaders of making the false promises and made it clear that he do not have much faith in them anymore. Although he also said that he will continue to support the government now as he has to keep the promise he made to the present government 3 years back. He announced that he will fight all 40 seats in Goa in 2017 assembly polls on his own capacity.
Pacheco’s release will set the new trend in Goa and it will give rise to more claims of Remission in the future. It is the trend that the people normally follow the footsteps of their leaders. There is saying “The more powers comes with the more responsibility attached to it” and that is why the lawmakers need to make use of their powers in very controlled manner, as it sets the parameters for the others in the future. Just look at the case of senior journalist Rupesh Samant who is evading his arrest in a similar fashion some of our politicians have done in the past. Anticipatory bail and absconding from the scene by deploying the lawyers to handle the matter is becoming the fashion which has initiated by the earlier trendsetters.
Where are all these things going to lead in the future? Everybody will start taking the law lightly in the future as they have the examples set by the lawmakers? It is very difficult to take the road of adversity, but it is necessary that the leaders and lawmakers should set the better standards in the society. If they only set the standard which is low, where does our society is going to lead to? We do not have any intention to blame anybody in person or we are not directing this to anybody in specific but it is the general thing which is happening rampantly in our society and it needs to be stopped. Please do leave your comments and suggestions on this issue.
Source: Various Sources
Edited by Goa Prism News Desk
