BR Andhalkar
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which has been probing the 2010 murder of Pune-based RTI activist Satish Shetty, on Friday arrested a former inspector of the local crime branch of Mumbai Police for his alleged role in the killing.
The former policeman has been identified as BR Andhalkar and the probe agency claims that he had allegedly conspired with the other accused in the case to murder Shetty six years ago.
Andhalkar has been further accused of destroying and manipulating evidence in order to shield the real murderers of the RTI activist.
Shetty was stabbed to death on January 13, 2010, not far from his Panchvati Colony home in Talegaon Dabhade. He was the Pune coordinator of the Bhrashtachar Virodhi Dakshata Samiti, an organisation fighting corruption.
The case was transferred to the CBI on April 6, 2010 after his son, Sandeep Shetty, had moved the high court.
"During his polygraph test, the accused (Andhalkar) was questioned about certain details to which he gave deceptive answers. His statements were in conflict with each other and, in some cases, we found him saying things that were untrue. He was taken into custody and his interrogation is underway," said a CBI official.
Among the many cases that Shetty had exposed was the alleged land scam along the Pune-Mumbai highway. Based on Shetty's findings and complaint, a case was lodged with the Lonavla town police station against the chairman and managing director of IRB Infrastructure Company, Virendra Mhaiskar, and 12 others, including some government officials, on October 15, 2009.
That same year, in November, Shetty had sought police protection after receiving death threats from unknown people.