A pall of gloom descended on Kundapura taluk of Udupi district when news of IPS officer K. Madhukar Shetty’s death reached his native place on Friday night. When his body was brought home to Yadadi Mathyadi on Saturday night, all those present broke down while paying their last respects to the mortal remains of the officer.
Hundreds of fans and well-wishers thronged Shetty’s farmhouse on Sunday morning. A host of IPS officers, both from Karnataka and Hyderabad were also there to pay their last respects. After his colleagues, friends and relatives paid tributes, the body was taken for the last rites to the place where his parents’ last rites were conducted. Director of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy, D.R. Doley Burman, handed over the officer’s uniform to his wife. Shetty’s daughter and brother Murali Shetty lit the pyre as the police fired 30 rounds in his honour.
Among those present were Urban Development Minister U.T. Khader, the officer’s classmate in school in Mangaluru. Mr. Khader told reporters he would urge the government to build a memorial in Shetty’s name. Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council Kota Srinivas Poojary, MLAs of Kundapura and Byndoor, Haladi Srinivasa Shetty and Sukumara Shetty, K. Jayaprakash Hegde, former MP, and several senior police officers.
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Additional DGP C.H. Prathap Reddy, Inspectors General of Police Vipul Kumar (South) and Arun Chakravathy (Western), Mangaluru City Police Commissioner T.R. Suresh, Udupi Deputy Commissioner Priyanka Mary Francis and Udupi Superintendent of Police Laxman Nimbargi attended the last rites.
Earlier on Saturday night, the body was airlifted from Bengaluru to Mangaluru and kept outside the Mangaluru International Airport for people to pay their last respects. Former Lokayukta N. Santosh Hegde and others paid their tributes there. Later, the body was taken by road to Yadadi.