A Goa legislator, convicted of abusing and slapping a junior engineer as a minister in his cabin in 2006, would have to undergo a six-month jail term, with the Supreme Court today dismissing his appeal against the verdict of the Bombay High Court in the case.
A bench of justices F M I Kalifulla and Shiva Kirti Singh dismissed the special leave petition of Francisco Xavier Pacheco, now a Goa Vikas Party MLA from Nuvem assembly seat, against the July 17, 2014 High Court verdict.
The Goa bench of the High Court had set aside the verdict of a revisional court, which had "brought down" the conviction of the MLA under Section 323 (causing hurt) from the harsher section 353 (assaulting public servant to deter from duty) under the IPC and, instead of sentencing him, ordered his release on 'admonition' under the Probation of Offenders Act.
The High Court, which had given two weeks time to the MLA to surrender, had upheld the decision of a lower appellate court to award him a jail term of six months besides a fine of Rs 1,500 in the case.
The apex court, in July last year, had admitted the MLA's SLP for hearing and exempted him from the surrender to undergo imprisonment.
An FIR was lodged on July 15, 2006 by Kapil Natekar, a junior engineer of the government's Electrical Department, against then minister Pacheco, alleging that he was abused and slapped by the lawmaker in his chamber.
Natekar was called to the minister's office as a telephone call of the latter's personal assistant was not attended to a day before the incident.
A court of Judicial Magistrate at Margao had convicted the lawmaker and sentenced him to one-year jail term and a fine of Rs 5,000.
However, an appellate court partly allowed the appeal of the MLA and reduced the jail term to 6 months and the fine to Rs 1,500.
However, a revisional court brought down the conviction under milder section 323 of the IPC and allowed the convict to walk free on 'admonition' under Section 3 of Probation of Offenders Act. This was reversed by the High Court.
