Mangaluru, Jan 11, 2017 : A special team of police led by Mulki Inspector Anantha Padmanabha and Moodbidri SI Dejappa has succeeded in cracking the mystery behind the case of murder of Umesh Shetty, a transport operator who hailed from Kelenjoor in Mulki police station limits. Four persons have been arrested in this case on January 10, Tuesday, informed City Police Commissioner Chandra Shekhar.
Speaking to media men at the Police Commissionerate office on January 11, Wednesday, the Commissioner said the accused have been identified as Prasad Acharya(27) of Nadugodu village, Rajesh Shetty (32) of Niddodi, Tilak Poojary (26), also from Niddodi and Prakash Achari from Moodigere taluk in Chikkamagaluru district. Excluding Prakash all the three are crane operators and repairers of cranes at MRPL Suratkal and MCF Panambur, the Commissioner informed. The fourth accused Prakash is a carpenter.
The Commissioner said interrogations of the accused revealed that Prasad Acharya had borrowed money from Umesh Shetty and had no intentions of returning the same. Umesh was travelling in a bus to alight at Pakshikere on December 28 on the pretext of showing him a stone quarry which the latter had reportedly intended to purchase. The accused took Shetty in a Ritz car to Kudri Padavu where he along with Rajesh Shetty, Tilak and Prakash Achari had murdered Umesh and dumped the body in a forest area near Niddodi, the Commissioner said.
It may be recalled here that 30 year old Umesh Shetty, son of Ramakrishna Shetty, who owned the Prabhavathi Transport at Kulai had gone missing after he alighted from the Sarvani bus on December 28 evening. After a frantic search his family had lodged a missing complaint. The body of Umesh was found in a forest area at Niddodi Daddu in Kallamundkur village on January 1. The police took up investigation into the case as per the complaint lodged by Umesh’s brother Nagaraj.
A special police team was constituted under the guidance of Mangaluru North Sub-Division ACP Rajendra D S as per the directions of the Commissioner, to solve this murder mystery.