Land scams whistleblower killed in Maharashtra
A social activist who had shot to fame after exposing certain corrupt land deals in Maharashtra through the Right to Information Act (RTI) was killed by unidentified people at Talegaon on the outskirts of Pune on Wednesday.
Satish Shetty was on his morning walk when some unidentified people assaulted him and injured him seriously. He was rushed to hospital where he died, Pradeep Aphale, investigating officer at the Talegaon police station, said.
The 38-year-old Shetty had left home around 6:45 am when the assailants attacked him with swords near Bhandari Hospital.
Shetty was involved in the anti-corruption movement launched by social worker Anna Hazare. He was credited with throwing light on several major land scams in the picturesque Talegaon-Lonavala region between Mumbai and Pune, now a favourite with realtors in the state.
He shot to fame after exposing certain corrupt land deals in and around the country’s first expressway, the Mumbai-Pune expressway, over a decade ago.
Condemning the incident, leading Mumbai crusader Sumaira Abdulali said this comes barely a week after the attack on another prominent Mumbai social activist Nayana Kathpalia and threats to Neera Punj of Citispace. “This has become a trend and social activists are considered soft targets. The government must take immediate steps to stop such attacks,” Abdulali, convener of Movement against Intimidation, Threats and Revenge against Activists (MITRA), said.
He wrote to Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil, listing several attacks on activists in past few years.
