Mangalore,August 11:The cops have taken an accused who went absconding, into their custody after thirteen years. The accused vishwanatha Shetty aged about 47 years, is the son of Monappa Shetty resident of Kodimbadi village, Puttur taluk.
Vishwanatha Rai, the proprietor of shiva Finance at Uppinangady was allegedly murdered by the manager of same finance Vishwanatha Shetty alias Panchami Vishwa alias Raju about thirteen years ago. The cops were looking for the accused who went absconding since then. He was taken into custody based on particular information by the DCIB Police and Uppinangady Cops at Tamilnadu.
The murder was committed in connection with financial dispute between the two which occurred at a house near Gandhi Park in Uppinangady
The finance firm which was founded in 1999 was jointly handled by Vishwanath Shetty and Vishwanath Rai, who were close friends. The firm was doing brisk business. On June 7, 2001, the two friends met at a house owned by Vishwanath Rai near Gandhi Park, Uppinangady.
Vishwanath Rai’s wife and daughter used to stay in the family’s house at Harinagar in Hirebandady village in Uppinangady, while the house near Gandhi Park was used for business purposes.
A financial dispute began in the meeting and the two friends-cum-partners started arguing on some point. Since the quarrel worsened, Vishwanath Shetty in anger murdered Rai with a sharp weapon. Shetty then reportedly loaded the body of Vishwanath Rai in his Maruti Zen car and drove it towards Honnavar.The car was abandoned by Shetty near Kadri Park Mangalore on June 8th, after discarding the body in a roadside drain near Honnavar and escaped with cash of one lac rupees.
After recovering Rai’s body from Honnavar, the police contacted Uppinangady station on the basis of an identity card found in his shirt pocket. During the investigation conducted by Puttur rural police circle inspector, N B Kamal, it came to be known that the car of Shetty was abandoned at Mangalore. Initially, the police concluded that both the partners had been killed.
Subhas Gowda, an employee of the firm who was present during the fight, had been threatened by Shetty when he tried to intervene, returned to his native place, Beltangady, and narrated what had happened to an advocate. At the advice of the advocate, he explained the turn of events to Puttur rural police circle inspector. On a complaint filed by him, a murder case was registered in Uppinangady police station on June 9th, stating Vishwanth Shetty as the accused. Shetty remained elusive thereafter and rumours said that he had either moved to Dubai or committed suicide. The accused was absconding at Tamilnadu and hence no clues were available.
He was working at Bhavani of Tamilnadu as a driver, in a hospital. Later he started working as a writer at Kadambur farm house which belonged to a doctor of the same hospital. Moving friendly with the locals he started finance there by stating his name as Raju and his father’s name to be Mohan.
The Police, had kept the phones of his friends under surveillance, came to know about his details when he had called one of his friend.
The cops got clear information about the accused and arrested him near bus stand at Kadambur, satyamangala Taluk which belongs to Erode District of Tamilnadu.
Based on an information a crew was formed including Savitrateja P R, Inspector, DCIB, B Suresh Kumar, Puttur Rural Circle Inspector, Sanjeeva Purusha, ASI, DCIB other officials namely Uday Rai, Taranath S,Palanivelu, Chandra Adoor, Iqbal and Vasu Naik to nab Vishwanath Shetty.
Vishwanath Shetty was taken to the crime spot on Sunday, August 10th following his arrest. Further investigations are in progress.
By Thangamma M M
