RTI activist murder – CBI raids 4 premises of IRB at Pune
4 Nov, 2012In relation to the investigation of the murder of the right to information (RTI) activist Satish Shetty, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) searched four premises of the construction firm Ideal Road Builders (IRB) Infrastructure at Pune. IRB Infrastructure is a subsidiary of Ideal Road Builders (IRB) which has in news recently due to alleged links with the BJP President Nitin Gadkari's Purti Group. The outcome of the search is not known as the CBI officials preferred not to issue any statement.
Shetty was killed on January 13, 2010, at Talegaon Dabhade town in Pune district just as he was stepping out of his house. He had filed many RTI applications and had lodged a complaint with the crime branch of Police about an alleged land scam involving IRB chairman Virendra Dattatreya Mhaiskar. He had disputed the ownership of IRB and its subsidiary companies over nearly 1200 acres of land alleging that it was based on fake documents made with the connivance of bureaucrats. Shetty had sought protection from Pune Police claiming that as he was being threatened by Mhaiskar.
After Shetty’s death, his brother Sandeep had named Mhaiskar in the FIR. Following investigations, the local police arrested two people and claimed that the killing of Shetty had been solved. The family of Shetty contested the version of the police and went to Bombay High Court alleging that the police were trying to shield some persons. On the directions of the High Court, the CBI to took over the investigations in September 2010 and had conducted lie detector test on Mhaiskar, some of his associates and police officials too. The results of polygraph test have not been made public.