Planned to shoot him initially, says Bhaskar Shetty's killer

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) sleuths investigating the murder of Udupi-based industrialist Bhaskar Shetty have reportedly established that Niranjan Bhat, a priest and one of the three suspects in the murder case, had initially planned to buy a pistol to kill Shetty.

“Bhat was in constant touch with his childhood friend Satish, a worker in a hotel in Mumbai, to procure the pistol. He made repeated calls to Satish four days before Shetty’s murder. But Satish failed to get him the pistol,” a senior officer told DH.

Bhat, who is in CID custody, revealed this and other details during interrogation. He had also requested Satish to bring chloroform to Udupi. Satish had approached a shopkeeper to buy chloroform in Mumbai. However, he did not buy it as the shopkeeper asked Satish to enter details in the register such as his name, age, mobile phone number and purpose of buying the chloroform, the officer quoted Bhat as saying.

Satish switched off his mobile phone to avoid answering Bhat’s calls. “We noticed that Bhat had made repeated calls to Satish. We detained Satish for questioning. He provided more details about the calls and the conversations Bhat had with him,” the officer said. After the murder, Bhat again contacted Satish, requesting him to arrange a contract killer to claim responsibility for the murder. Besides money, the accused offered land for the contract killer. However, Satish refused to arrange a contract killer, the police said.

The police said two vehicles owned by Shetty’s son Navneet were used to transport the body, weapon used for the murder and hollow bricks. Later, the accused - including Navneet and his mother Rajeshwari - burnt the body and disposed of the bones and ashes, the bricks and the weapon into a river.

The CID have recovered a few bones, bricks and the weapon from the river with the help of expert swimmers. The police have sent the materials and the bones to the Forensic Science Laboratory for examination.

The police have also verified details of Shetty’s bank accounts. Shetty held 13 accounts in different banks, while Rajeshwari has eight accounts, Navneet 10 accounts and Niranjan Bhat seven. Shetty was found owning properties worth Rs 100 crore. Bhat, Rajeshwari and Navneet hacked Shetty to death on July 28 over domestic and property disputes.