The Principal District and Sessions Court on Monday decided to fix the date of trial in the Bhaskar Shetty murder case on November 28.
Shanthi Bai, Principal Public Prosecutor, told The Hindu that the charges were read out against all the five accused in the case in the court here on Monday. But all of them denied the charges. Hence the court had fixed November 28 to decide on the date of the trial, she said.
The three main accused in the murder case – Rajeshwari Shetty, Navneet Shetty and Niranjan Bhat, and two others – Srinivas Bhat, Niranjan’s father, and Raghavendra, Niranjan’s driver, who have been charged with destruction of evidence, were present in the court.
Earlier, Rajeshwari, Navneet and Niranjan were being brought in a police van from the prison in Shivamogga to be produced to the court here.
It may be recalled that a controversy had broken over the three main accused being brought in an air-conditioned Multi Utility Vehicle (MUV) from the prison in Mangaluru to the Court Complex here in Udupi on August 21, this year, and had led to the suspension of three police personnel.
Bhaskar Shetty, a NRI businessman, went missing from his house here on July 28, 2016, and his mother Gulabi Shetty lodged a missing complaint at the Manipal police station on July 29, 2016. The police arrested his wife Rajeshwari, 50,, their son Navneet, 20, on the charge of murdering Bhaskar Shetty and destroying evidence, here on August 7, 2016.
The police arrested a priest, Niranjan Bhat, 26, on August 8, 2016, for allegedly helping in disposing off Bhaskar Shetty’s body after burning in it in a ‘Yagna Kunda’ room at Nandalike village and immersing the ashes in a rivulet at Palli village. So far, the police have not recovered the dead body of Bhaskar Shetty.
