Sawant report had given clean chit to RTI activist

The matter was part of the probe by retired Supreme Court Justice P B Sawant. His report submitted in 2005 had absolved Shetty of all allegations made by Dabhade.

The report had,however,established that Dabhade’s house was on unauthorised land. It was Shetty’s RTI on Dabhade’s unauthorised house that is believed to have prompted Dabhade to get Shetty murdered.

As per the Justice Sawant report,‘Dabhade’s evidence shows that the land on which his house stands is in the name of the Railways. If this is so,then obviously the house is unauthorised. It is Dabhade’s contention that for constructing the house either old or new (as renovated by him),a sanction was obtained from the Municipal Council. If this is so,then the relevant complaints made by Shetty (against Dabhade) to the Municipal Council,to the MSEB and to the police cannot be said to be unjustified.’

As for complaints filed by Dabhade against Shetty,the report cites two criminal complaints and a defamation suit filed on behalf of Dabahde’s client Kanu Padwal. Dabhade had alleged to Hazare that Shetty,angered by these three complaints,had visited his office and abused him and had attacked him with stones on November 27,2001.

It was only after a lot of pursuance that police registered a cognizable offence and arrested Shetty. However,as per the report,Shetty was acquitted of the charges. ‘It cannot be alleged that Shetty,as an organiser of the Andolan,was doing anything illegal when he made the said complaints (against Dabhade),’ the report states.

After that,Shetty had complained against Dabhade to the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa (BCMG) in 2004,but the complaint was dismissed.

The then chairman of BCMG,Sureshchandra Bhosale,when contacted,however,could not recollect any complaint against Dabhade.

“The Bar Council can entertain complaints pertaining to only professional misconduct filed by the client. If the complaint by Shetty was of a personal nature,it would have been dismissed by the Council,” said advocate Harshad Nimbalkar,the then member of BCMG from Pune.

On January 13,2010,five years after the Sawant report was submitted,Shetty was murdered in Talegaon during his morning walk. The police arrested Dabhade (42),aides,Pramod Waghmare and Parshuram Telugu,for giving ‘supari’ (contract) to get Shetty killed. On April 8,2010,the case was handed over to CBI as demanded by Shetty’s brother Sandeep. Even as the case is pending in court,justice Sawant has said that neither the police nor the CBI had approached him with reference to this report.