Mangaluru: Five persons have been arrested at Horanadu by the Suratkal police in connection with the murder of BJP activist Keshav Shetty at Soorinje, said the DCP of Law and Order Santosh Babu in a press meet held at the Police Commissioner’s Office here on January 10.
The arrested are Lithesh (25) from Soorinje, Shobi alias Shobhraj (23), Yuvaraj alias Appu (23) a resident of Delantabettu, Krishna (19) from Mennabettu, Kinnigoli and Bharat (25).
Addressing the mediapersons DCP Santosh said that on January 6 at around 6:30 a.m, while Keshav and Sampath were playing Badminton, five people came along with machetes and hacked Keshav to death. In this regard, a case was registered in the Suratkal police station under IPC section 302 and 506. The main accused Satish alias Sacchu is yet to be arrested.
Keshav Shetty was a businessman and he had started the Carline Garage at Hosabettu. The main accused Satish had asked for some financial help with Keshav, which he had refused. In this regard Satish had threatened Keshav’s life. Keshav later filed a complaint against Satish and Satish was arrested. Later, Litesh also asked Keshav to lend some money which Keshav again refused. Litesh is also a BJP activist and due to this there was some misunderstanding between them. Recently Keshav along with his friends had gone to Lithesh’s house and threatened Lithesh’s mother and sister. Litesh soon after planned to finish off Keshav. He, along with his friends hatched a plan. On January 4, Lithesh along with Satish, Shobhraj, Yuvaraj, Krishna and Bharat decided to execute their plan but were not able to due to unfavourable circumstances.
On January 5, the same group again attempted to kill Keshav, but Keshav was lucky on that day too. In the early morning of January 6, when Keshav was on his way to the playground, all the five were waiting to ambush him behind the bushes. When Keshav and Sampath came to the playground, all the five chased Keshav and hacked him to death in front of Sampath.
At the time of murder Bharat was away, he later helped the accused to shift their vehicles as requested by them through SMS. During interrogation, all the five have confessed to the crime.
Under the able guidance of Police Commissioner S Murugun IPS, DCP Vishnuvardhan, DCP Law and Order Santhosh Babu IPS, ACP Ravikumar S, M A Nataraj, PSI Ravishanker C, Krishna B K, Raja and Santosh participated in the operation.
Earlier news:
- Mangaluru: Suspects in Keshav Shetty Murder Reportedly Absconding
- Mangaluru: With Keshav’s Body BJP Stages Protest Demanding the Arrest of Drug Peddlers
- Mangaluru: BJP activist Keshav Shetty hacked to death