Zeenews Bureau
Panaji: Former Goa tourism minister Fransisco Mickey Pacheco has been summoned by the CBI for his involvement in a fake US visa scam.
The development follows the Central investigating agency’s move to freeze the former state minister’s bank accounts. Three of Pacheco’s mobile phones have also been taken away by the CBI.
The former minister allegedly acquired US visas on forged documents and was accused of running an immigration and human trafficking racket.
The NCP legislator was in the news recently after his name was dragged in a massive immigration and money laundering racket reported by the US Bureau of Diplomatic Security.
According to a news report, the bureau had got in touch with the Ministry of External Affairs with the relevant documents and the case was referred to CBI. The CBI meanwhile assessed the documents and details of Pacheco`s banking transactions handed over by the US.
The CBI alleged that Pacheco along with two of his accomplices, Pedro Antonio Joanes and Daniel Raymond Fernandes obtained crew members` visas from the United States Consulate at Mumbai in the names of unknown persons on these forged documents and facilitated their travel to the US by using them.
Pacheco had resigned as a minister on June 6 after being arrested for his alleged involvement in the death of his friend Nadia Torrado. His bail for this case came around the same time when the US first alerted India about his alleged role in the racket – July 26.
