The Court of the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate remanded the two main accused — Navneet Shetty and Niranjan Bhat — in the Bhaskar Shetty murder case in judicial custody till October 3, here on Wednesday. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is investigating the case.
The CID had sought police custody of Rajeshwari Shetty, wife of Bhaskar Shetty, for four days on Tuesday, and it sought an extension of police custody of the remaining two main accused — Navneet Shetty, son of Bhaskar Shetty, and Niranjan Bhat, a priest, for three days, on Wednesday in the court.
But counsel for the accused informed the court here that in response to a writ petition filed by the advocates of Rajeshwari Shetty in the High Court of Karnataka on the issue of police custody, the High Court had observed that with regard to the law laid down by the Supreme Court, the grant of police custody after the expiry of 15 days did not arise and that the petitioner could be remanded in judicial custody and not police custody.
The order copy of the High Court would be made available to the court here on September 24.
The court of the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate also rejected the plea of the CID for extension of police custody of Navneet and Niranjan.
It may be recalled that the Court of the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate had on September 19, extended the judicial custody of Rajeshwari Shetty, Srinivas Bhat, father of Niranjan Bhat, and Raghavendra, car driver of Niranjan Bhat, till October 3.
Bhaskar Shetty, a NRI businessman, went missing from his house here on July 28, and his mother, Gulabi Shetty, lodged a missing complaint at the Manipal police station on July 29. The police arrested Rajeshwari Shetty (46), and Navneet Shetty (20) on the charge of murdering Bhaskar Shetty and destroying evidence, here on August 7.
They arrested Niranjan (25) on August 8 for allegedly helping the main accused in disposing of the body after burning 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 body.
The police arrested Srinivas and Raghavendra on August 10, on the charge of destruction of evidence in the case.
