Pics: Spoorthi Ullal
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (ANK)
Mangaluru, Jan 11: The police have arrested four persons in connection to the murder of Umesh Shetty (29) from Kilenjur Kambalimane near Kinnigoli here. Shetty's was found abandoned in a hilly terrain near the church at Niddodi Daddu some days back.
Umesh Shetty
Addressing a press meet here on Wednesday January 11, police commissioner Chandra Sekhar said that the arrested accused are Prasad Acharya (27), a resident of Kodethur, Rajesh Shetty (32), a resident of Niddodi, Tilak Poojary (26), also of Niddodi, and Prakash (28), a resident of Mudigere, Chikkamagaluru.
They were taken into custody on Tuesday January 10 near Niddodi.
Umesh Shetty, son of Ramakrishna Shetty and Prabavathi Shetty from Kilenjur, had gone missing on December 28 and complaint was registered. He was last seen alighting from a bus at Pakshikere and travelling by a white Maruti Swift car. His body was found on January 1 and a case was registered in Moodbidri police station. Umesh was engaged in transport business at Panambur and was also into dry coconut business.
The police commissioner said that accused Prasad Acharya and Umesh were family friends. Umesh had sold his ancestral property for Rs 30 lac. Meanwhile, Prasad had requested him to lend him Rs 30 lac to construct a house, to which Umesh agreed. However, he failed to return him the money.
During investigation, it was revealed that Umesh had recently told his friends about his plan to start a laterite stone quarry. Using this as an excuse, Prasad took him by car to a stone quarry on the pretext of showing it to Umesh, murdered him there with the help of other accused and discarded the body in the hilly forest area, the commissioner said.
The money Prasad had borrowed from Umesh is yet to be recovered.
Chandra Sekhar also said that further investigation into the case was on.
The arrest operation was jointly conducted by Mulky and Moodbidri police teams.
Lesser accidents in 2016
The police commissioner also said that in 2016, there was a 17 percent reduction in the number of road accidents as compared to 2015 in Dakshina Kannada.
"In 2015, as many as 171 people were killed in fatal accidents and in 2016, the number of accident related deaths was 141. As many as 1,439 were injured in accidents in 2015, while in 2016, the number stood at 1,253," he said, adding, "Even this year, priroty will be given to ease traffic conjestion and prevent accidents."
In 2016, there were a total of 369 promotions in all ranks in DK. Also, 139 were recruited for CPC and 254 for armed police constable teams.
DCPs Shantharaju and Sanjeeva Patil and Panambur ACP Rajendra were present.