CBI today decided to reinvestigate the murder of Pune-based RTI activist Satish Shetty in view of new evidence recovered during the searches at the offices and residence of a prominent builder in January.
The decision to close the murder case was taken nearly eight months back--in June last year--while the closure report was filed before the special court in August case, CBI sources said here today.
They said the agency has decided to reinvestigate the murder after it recovered certain documents, indicative of possible missing evidence in the murder case, from a builder whose offices and residence were searched in Janurary in a separate case registered in November.
After registering the fresh case, CBI had carried out searches at 21 locations in Mumbai and Pune in the premises of IRB infrastructure developer to probe allegations of land grabbing along Mumbai-Pune Highway on the directions of the Bombay High Court.
CBI sources said the searches were an off-shoot of the murder of Satish Shetty who had sought information on the alleged land grabbing by IRB Infrastructure developers.
The Bombay High Court, on the request of CBI, had handed over the probe to it to investigate allegations of land grabbing.
CBI had registered a case under various Sections of IPC related to cheating and forgery against Deepak Dattatrey Gadgil, who is the authorised signatory for Aryan Infrastructure (a subsidiary of IRB infrastructure) and 12 others, the sources said.
CBI had carried out searches at 21 locations including the offices and residence of Gadgil and Virendra Mahaiskar, Managing Director IRB Infrastructure. The premises of other 15 individuals were also searched, they said.
The sources said that during the searches CBI recovered several documents and evidence which could be the key missing links in deciphering the murder of Shetty after which a decision to reinvestigate the case was taken.
Shetty had been demanding information about the alleged land-grabbing on Mumbai-Pune Highway by builders. The sources said it was suspected that his RTI applications could be a reason behind his murder but in the absence of any evidence, a closure had been filed.
Shetty was killed as he stepped out of his house on January 13, 2010, at Talegaon Dabhade town in Pune district.
In 2009, he had written a letter to the Pune police seeking protection as he was allegedly being threatened by Mhaiskar. Shetty had alleged that IRB and its subsidiary companies had, with the connivance of bureaucrats, prepared fake documents to claim the ownership of government land.
