From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Panaji

Panaji, Sep 30: Goa police today said that they had arrested state tourism minister Fransisco alias Miccky Pacheco when he appeared before them this morning and was released on bail.
 
The police who initially kept the news about arrest under wraps finally confirmed the arrest late in the evening.
 
The minister is booked for allegedly extorting money from a casino operator in South Goa. Casino operator from a renowned starred hotel in South Goa had alleged that the minister along with eleven others had tried to extort Rs 3.69 lac from him.
 
Goa police who interrogated Pacheco this morning had kept the news about his arrest under wraps till late evening.
 
“He was placed under arrest and was immediately released on the bail and a local sureity,” police inspector Sunita Sawant said.
 
She said that the minister had managed to get a court order which had directed the police to bail out the minister if he is arrested.
 
Crime branch officials confirmed that the minister furnished a bond of Rs 5,000 and a local sureity in the form of his personal assistant and friend Lyndon Monteiro, who had accompanied him during the interrogation.
 
Deputy superintendent of police (crime branch) Chandrakant Salgaoncar, who had addressed the media after minister’s interrogation had skirted the questions on his arrest.
 
“The minister cooperated with the during the interrogation,” Salgaoncar told reporters.
 
This morning, the minister accompanied by his officer on special duty, Lyndon Monteiro, had arrived at the crime branch’s office at Dona Paula near here at 10 am.
 
He was interrogated by police inspector Sunita Sawant for over two hours.
 
Police sources disclosed that the minister was shown the CCTV footage of the casino trekking his movement on the day when he allegedly extorted money.
 
“There is contradiction in the complaint and what you can see on the CCTV footage,” Pacheco told reporters emerging from the two hour long interrogation.
 
“The footage shows me playing in the casino and not at a single time, I have extorted the money. I played and whatever I won, I was paid,” the tourism minister, who is also a NCP legislator, said.