Journalism of Courage
A sessions court in Pune on Thursday sent Bhausaheb Andhalkar, a former police inspector with Pune Rural Police arrested a day earlier in connection with the 2010 murder of RTI activist Satish Shetty, to nine days of police custody while holding that “his custodial interrogation was necessary to unearth the details of the murder case”.
Andhalkar (60), resident of Model Colony in Pune, was a police inspector when he led the probe into the Shetty murder case before it was transferred to the CBI.
The CBI had arrested Andhalkar on Wednesday for allegedly shielding the accused and being complicit in the crime.
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Shetty, a resident of Talegaon Dabhade, was an RTI activist and Pune district coordinator of the Bhrashtachar Virodhi Dakshata Samiti. He was stabbed to death in Talegaon Dabhade on January 13, 2010.
“… To unearth the conspiracy behind the murder of Satish Shetty, for discovery of certain crucial facts/recovery of articles, including weapon of murder which has not been recovered so far, custodial interrogation of the accused is essential… it’s contended that certain facts are in exclusive knowledge of the accused,” reads the order passed by Additional Sessions Judge S B Kachre.
Andhalkar was produced before the judge at 1 pm on Thursday after he underwent a medical check-up at Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial hospital in Pimpri.
Vijaykumar Shukla, Additional Superintendent of Police with the CBI, submitted to the court that custodial interrogation of Andhalkar was important because it had come to light during the course of investigation that the accused was “complicit” in the crime of murder and conspiracy to murder.
Shukla also claimed that “certain facts” in the Shetty murder case were in “exclusive knowledge of Andhalkar” but he was not cooperating with the agency.
Andhalkar’s lawyer advocate S M Shah refuted these claims and argued that his client was being framed by the investigation agency. “There’s no evidence to show that Mr Andhalkar was in any way involved or complicit in the alleged act. In fact, he has repeatedly requested various investigation agencies to conduct narco tests on him.”
Andhalkar will now be produced before the court on April 16.
