The Central Bureau of Investigation’s sudden closure report in the murder case of noted Right to Information activist Satish Shetty was “absurd and self-contradictory”, claimed the slain activist’s kin on Wednesday.
The report, submitted by the agency at the Wadgaon-Maval court in Pune, has sparked widespread indignation among activists and even in some police quarters.
The closure report, a copy of which is with The Hindu , says that prima facie, the analysis of call records between the IRB’s liaison manager Jayant Dangre, a retired police inspector of the local crime branch, Bhausaheb Andhalkar, advocate Ajit Kulkarni and Virendra Mhaiskar, chairman and managing director of Mumbai-based Ideal Road Builders (IRB) (all named in Mr. Shetty’s 2009 complaint) “revealed a close nexus.”
It also notes that of the 36 persons and witnesses subjected to polygraph tests by the CBI, “deception was detected” in the answers given by Dangre, Andhalkar and Kulkarni.
“Despite parading all the evidence, the report summarily states that none of Satish Shetty’s enemies can be tangibly connected. It states that telephonic conversations and polygraph tests do not constitute substantive evidence. After four years of plodding investigation, the CBI cannot establish a motive. Such a report cannot stand scrutiny of the court,” said Sandeep Shetty, his brother, remarking that he would appeal to the Bombay High Court on Thursday.
Last Friday, the Bombay High Court had allowed the CBI to re-investigate Mr. Satish Shetty’s complaint of October 2009, wherein he had alleged massive land grabbing on the part of Mr. Mhaiskar’s IRB.
Following his complaint, Mr. Shetty was allegedly threatened by the liaison manager of the IRB group and had appealed for police protection, which was not granted to him despite the sub-divisional police officer (SDPO), Lonavala, recommending the same.
Mr. Shetty was stabbed to death outside his home in Talegaon on January 13, 2010.
The CBI, in its report, claims to have looked into Mr. Shetty’s complaint in which he had named 13 people, including Mhaiskar and a sub-registrar, and accusing IRB and its subsidiary, Aryan Infrastructure Investment Pvt. Ltd., of grabbing government and private lands in Maval Taluk by forging documents and manipulating land records.
Meanwhile, Amitabh Thakur, Inspector-General of Police in Uttar Pradesh (Civil Defence) and founder of the National RTI Forum, said he would approach the Prime Minister for his intervention in the matter. Mr. Thakur severely censured the CBI for displaying “undue haste” in such a serious case.
