Satish Shetty murder case: Another ex-cop held, CBI says more arrests soon

Kauthale was called by the CBI for questioning on Sunday and was put under arrest on Monday.

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Shetty, a resident of Talegaon Dabhade, was the Pune district coordinator of an outfit named Bhrashtachar Virodhi Dakshata Samiti. On the morning of January 13, 2010, Shetty was stabbed to death in Talegaon Dabhade, not far from his home.

In the summary closure report filed in 2014 in the Shetty murder case probe, the CBI had raised serious doubts on Kauthale’s role in the initial investigation of the case. In a press release issued on Monday, CBI said Kauthale had “conspired with the perpetrators of crime and created false evidence and fake eye-witnesses implicating five other accused persons to shield the real conspirators and killers”.

Last week, the CBI arrested retired inspector Bhausaheb Andhalkar, who headed the LCB at the time of murder and during the
investigation.

Sources from the probe agency said more arrests, including those of some big names, were likely in the coming days.

Both Andhalkar and Kauthale have been remanded in CBI custody till April 16.

The Pune rural police, in their initial investigation in 2010, had arrested one Dongrya Rathod for Shetty’s murder. Kauthale had seized a T-Shirt from Rathod’s house which purportedly had stains of Shetty’s blood on it. However, the CBI closure report stated that when the samples were sent to Central Forensic Sciences Laboratory for DNA matching, Shetty’s DNA and that on the T-Shirt did not match.

Also, a person made panchnama witnesses by Pune rural police later told the CBI he was not present at the time of panchnama and had signed the report as witness without reading it.