Solving Crime: How a Cricket Tournament Helped Karnataka Police Solve a 13-Year-Old Murder Case | Bangalore News

The police registered a missing person case and discovered that Shetty had also been missing for two days.

At that time, police in Honnavar, in neighboring Uttara Kannada district, were informed about an unidentified dead body. The only piece of evidence to identify the body was a cloth tag on the collar of the shirt that read Sindu Puttur 21376. Puttur police rushed to the mortuary of Honnavar government hospital where the body was kept and Mallika identified it as her husbands.

The investigation begins, but ends

When police contacted Shetty's wife, she said he had told her on June 7 that one of his friends had arrived from Kuwait and that he was going to Mangaluru with Vishwanath Rai. Police managed to locate Shetty's car, which was parked near Kadri Park in Mangaluru, but there was no sign of Shetty.

The subsequent police investigation revealed that Rai and Shetty allegedly had an argument over a financial matter on the day of the murder. Police learned that Shetty had brought two bottles of beer and that he had purchased them from a wine shop in Uppinangady. Police also discovered that another employee of Rai's firm, Subash Chandra, was with Shetty and Rai at the latter's residence. Rai owned several houses.

After being taken into custody, Chandra allegedly revealed that Shetty killed Rai with an iron rod and took the body away in his car.

Police sent several teams to different parts of the coastal area, including the houses of Shetty's friends and relatives, but he could not be traced. The police also tracked Shetty's phone but got no clues.

The cricket tournament that ended Shetty's run

In the following years, the inspectors at the Puttur police station changed and the Vishwanath Rai murder case was forgotten. In September 2012, police inspector Suresh Kumar P was transferred to the police station.

Subsequently, SD Sharanappa, the then police commissioner of Udupi, asked his staff to investigate the unsolved crimes in their police station. For Kumar, this was the Vishwanath Rai murder case.

The investigation, collection of evidence, statement and other formalities were duly carried out by the officer when the incident took place. But what was suspicious was that Shetty's wife and son continued to live in Kodimbady village in Puttur taluk and never tried to contact the police to know if he had been arrested or traced. This was a turning point for me, says Kumar, who is now the Lokayukta police inspector in Dakshina Kannada district.

I have deputed some young police officers from the Puttur region to track down his wife and son. We discovered that his wife was working in the court canteen and we tracked her mobile phone but there was no trace. The other person left behind was her son, he said.

Shetty's son, who was about 18-20 years old at the time, was a well-known cricketer in Puttur Taluk and played in local cricket tournaments. This piece of information was obtained by a police officer who was tasked with tracking down Shetty's family.

It was our luck that the police officer also played cricket and knew Shetty's son. We found out that his son used two cell phones but only shared one number. At one of the cricket tournaments where Shetty's son was playing, the police officer managed to get the other number. After scanning the call detail record (CDR) we found something very unusual. That number was called once every two or three months. Shetty's wife also received a call from the same number and they spoke for more than 20-30 minutes. This mobile number became the subject of our interest, says Kumar.

When police traced the number, they discovered that it was operating in the Erode region of Tamil Nadu, home to the densely populated Sathyamangalam forest that was once infamous for serving as a hideout for forest robber Veerappans. We also found that the number was intermittently active in Chamarajanagar, a district in Karnataka bordering Tamil Nadu, Kumar recalls.

Two plainclothes police officers visited the area with Shetty's photo. When they asked locals about Shetty, they learned that Shetty went by Raj and even ran a finance company there, Raj Finance.

After more than six months of investigation, the police announced the arrest of Vishwanath Shetty in August 2014, more than thirteen years after Vishwanath Rai was murdered.

Tying up loose ends and a belief

Police inspector Suresh Kumar remembers asking Shetty how he managed to remain untraceable all these years. After killing Rai and dumping his body, Shetty left his car and went to Palakkad in Kerala. He worked in a farm of a doctor from Coimbatore. Impressed by his skills, the doctor took him to Coimbatore and then to Erode, where the doctor owned a farm. Shetty as Raj managed to establish himself as a financier and set up a finance company. Occasionally he met his wife. She often went to Chamarajanagar and they would stay together in a lodge or hotel for two or three days and return, he says.

During the investigation, the police also found that Shetty's wife had played a crucial role in his 13-year career. While she was working in the court canteen, our police officers visiting the court discussed the investigation to which she relayed the message. She also learned how to deal with the law. It helped Shetty escape, Kumar added.

After his arrest, Shetty got out on bail on October 1, 2015 and returned to his hometown.

On December 13, 2021, Judge Rudolph Pereira, the Fifth Additional District and Sessions Judge of Dakshina Kannada, sentenced Shetty to life imprisonment. Shetty was 45 years old at the time. Justice Pereira said in his order: The nature and attitude of the suspect who absconded from the place where the incident took place and subsequently hid in the neighboring state for about 13 years by changing his name would show that he committed the alleged committed crimes. offenses and it strengthens the allegations of the only eyewitness of PW.6 (Subhash Chandra).