Three persons including a lawyer have been arrested in connection with the murder of RTI activist Satish Shetty at Talegaon near here, police said today. The trio was held late last night, they said.
Three persons including a lawyer have been arrested in connection with the murder of RTI activist Satish Shetty at Talegaon near here, police said today. The trio was held late last night, they said.
Lawyer Vijay Dabhade reportedly had an old enmity with Shetty who had exposed many land scams in the Maval region, sources said. The slain activist had lodged complaints against Dabhade in the past for attacking him, they said.
Two others booked in the case were Pramod Waghmore and Parshuram Telgu. Shetty was murdered by two unidentified assailants at Talegaon, a small village about 45 km from here, on January 13 when he was taking a morning walk. The arrested persons would be produced in a court at Wadgaon in Maval taluka, police said.
Satish, a bachelor had plunged into the anti-corruption movement launched by Hazare many years ago and was by his side when Anna had undertaken a long fast at pilgrim town of Alandi in protest against corrupt practices in government offices.
"He was killed simply because he used Right to Information (RTI) to unearth corruption and in the process antagonised the vested interests of the powerful.
The clear message that the killers want to send out is that nobody should dare to do what Satish did. This is frightening and can cause a serious setback to RTI movement," said Hazare recalling that police were investigating into the alleged "Supari" of Rs 30 lakh given to contract killers to eliminate him (Hazare).
Echoing Hazare's sentiments, Vijay Kuvalekar, Maharashtra State Information Commissioner, said that the murder of Shetty had seriously hurt the RTI movement in the state.
"It is responsibility of the government now to book the culprits and ensure that police investigations are not carried out under pressure from any quarters," Kuvalekar said.
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
