Pune: Eight days after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a closure report in the murder case of RTI activist Satish Shetty, retired police inspector Bhausaheb Andhalkar said that earlier probe done by his team was correct in the case. 

CBI has chargesheeted Andhalkar and his junior PSI Namdev Kauthale for allegedly tampering with evidence and false witnesses to shield the real culprits. In the final report (closure report), CBI has not named the real killers of Shetty who had filed the case regarding Expressway land grabbing months before his murder. 

Shetty was murdered near his residence in Talegaon on January 13, 2010. The Pune rural police had filed a charge sheet against five persons including a lawyer alleging that he had hatched a conspiracy to kill Shetty due to their past enmity.

Later, the case was transferred to CBI which arraigned six more persons including Virendra Mhaiskar, CMD of IRB Infrastructure Company, against whom Shetty had lodged the land grabbing case. However, the CBI court has discharged Mhaiskar and others. Now the trial will commence against Andhalkar and Kauthale, both of whom are out on bail in the case.

Addressing a press conference at Patrakar Bhavan on Saturday, Andhalkar said, “Most of the CBI investigation was done by a Maharashtra police officer who was on deputation with the central agency. He implicated me due to a personal vendetta. He had also misled his superiors in CBI and had also taken them for a trip to Shani Shingnapur. CBI should not post officer in their home state as they may have vested interests there.” 

The Pune rural police had filed a charge sheet in April 2010 Talegaon against Dabhade-based lawyer Vijay Dabhade who is now dead, his clerk Pramod Waghmore, Dongrya Hanumant Rathod, Navnath Shelar and Sham Dabhade. Inspector Andhalkar was then posted with the Local Crime Branch and had assisted in the investigation conducted by then DySP (Lonavla) Dilip Shinde.