City

Whistleblower’s murder rocks the city

RTI activist Satish Shetty spent most of his life fighting corruption. He paid for it with his life yesterday. His family has questions as there was an earlier attack on his life. Other activists, though upset, are not afraid

Payal Banerjee

Posted On Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 12:29:54 AM

The spot where Satish was attacked with swords by unidentified people

Satish Shetty

Satish Shetty spent 15 years of his life as a Right to Information Act (RTI) activist during which he uncovered many corrupt land deals.

This could be why he was murdered in cold blood while he was on his morning walk on Wednesday.

What makes Shetty’s case worse is that there was an attempt on his life earlier. However, the crusader got no protection from the police even after that.

The murder of Satish Shetty from Talegaon Dabhade comes close on the heels of an attack on a prominent Mumbai social activist, Nayana Kathpalia, and threats to another activist Neera Punj from Citispace.

This opens one’s eyes to the lethal danger these social crusaders and anti-corruption activists are faced with.

Shetty, who had exposed many land scams in the picturesque Talegaon-Lonavala regions was attacked by unidentified men with sharp weapons on Wednesday morning.

Pradeep Aphale, senior inspector of Talegaon police station said, “Shetty was on his morning walk and had stopped near a stall to read some newspapers when unidentified men attacked him with swords around 7.15 am, leaving him seriously injured. He was immediately rushed to a private hospital, where he died.”

Now, the police are on the lookout for the culprits. A woman who witnessed the crime is being interrogated by the Talegaon police.

Superintendent of police (SP), Pune rural, Pratap Dighavkar said, “In his career as an RTI activist that spanned 15 years, Satish Shetty played a major role in digging up many illegal matters and exposing quite a few corrupt land deals. This earned him a lot of enemies who wanted him out of their way.

So, we will interrogate all the people related to him and those who have been affected because of the kind of work he did. A few days ago, an attempt was made on his life, when a motorcyclist tried to run him over.

But he escaped. So, there are chances that people were already trying to get him killed. We have organised five teams of policemen who will carry out a special investigation in this case."

Talking to Pune Mirror, Satish’s cousin, Mahesh Shetty said, “In our society, a person who champions a good cause and tries to battle corruption has to meet a deadly end, as he makes many powerful enemies. We always asked Satish to stay away from these matters as we were well off.

But he could never ignore a person’s plea for help and would jump into the matter. It is obvious that he was targeted by someone who was getting affected by his intervention.

The question we would like answered is: who is behind his death? We expect full co-operation from the police.”