Bhaskar Shetty case: SC seeks list of witnesses from state govt

The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Karnataka government to provide a list of witnesses, who it feared, can be influenced, if a woman accused of killing her husband and burning his body in a 'Homa Kund' in 2016 in conspiracy with her son and paramour was granted bail.

A bench of Justices S A Bobde and L Nageswara Rao asked the state's counsel Joseph Aristotle to provide within two weeks a chart containing the name of witnesses along with the time schedule within which they can be examined by the trial court.

Senior advocate Basava Prabhu Patil, representing petitioner Rajeswari Shetty, contended that the woman has been in jail for over one year and nine months and the state government, which earlier opposed her bail plea, continued to do so, despite completion of the investigation and filing of an additional chargesheet.

On this, the court said, "The case details are quite gory and the petitioner should allow the state government to put all their arguments."

At the start of the hearing, the bench asked the state counsel why the woman should not be granted bail.

The counsel responded by alleging the woman had tried to hamper the prosecution at every stage. "After the crime, she had called a supari (contract) killer to own up the murder. She even threatened the witnesses," Aristotle said, citing the case records.

The court said then she should remain in jail for some more time. However, Patil submitted that she has been falsely implicated in the case. Her husband (Bhaskar Shetty) had an affair and after his death, the relatives tried to usurp all the properties, he claimed.

The court then deferred the matter for hearing on April 23.