11-member SIT formed to probe journalist Shashikant Warishe murder

“The SIT comprising 11 police officers have been formed. It will be headed by Deputy Superintendent of Police Sadashiv Waghmare. Our probe is on,” Ratnagiri SP Dhananjay Kulkarni said.

The site of the incident. (Express Photo)

Amberkar was on Tuesday produced before the Rajapur court, which remanded him to police custody for two more days.

An officer said that Amberkar has confessed to the crime. “Amberkar has confessed that it was a pre-planned act. We have got his bank account as well as call record details. We are scrutinising the same to ascertain if more people were involved in the act.”

Shashikant Warishe used to reside with his mother and 19-year-old son in Kasheli village.

He added, “We have also got information about previous cases and complaints filed against the accused. He has a criminal record… threatening and assaulting anti-refinery activists since he was a refinery supporter and would work to facilitate land acquisition for the project. We are looking into these previous cases and complaints.”

The Indian Express had reported that Amberkar had a history of tiffs with individuals opposed to the refinery and petrochemicals factory proposed to come up in the district and earlier tried to allegedly run over a 21-year-old anti-refinery activist.

The Rajapur police, which had arrested Ameberkar, had slapped murder charge against him on Wednesday. Initially, he was booked under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Indian Penal Code.

Warishe used to work for Mumbai-based Marathi newspaper Mahanagari Times and was allegedly targeted for his critical news reports on the refinery project, likely to come up at Barsu village.