Raigad cops solve railway guard murder, trace killer to Karnataka

The accused was constantly changing his mobile phones and sim cards, and was traced by keeping a tab of his former aides he had met in jail during his previous arrest around 20 years ago

Navi Mumbai

Raigad cops solve railway guard murder, trace killer to Karnataka

After four weeks of murder of Railway guard, Raigad police have traced the accused and arrested him from Karnataka on Sunday. It has been revealed from his interrogation that he had planned the murder around two months back and purchased two country made pistol from Uttar Pradesh for ₹1.50 lakh for killing his brother-in-law who worked as a Railway guard.

The accused Vijay Ramesh Shetty (47) who was constantly changing his mobile phones and sim cards, was traced by keeping a tab of his former accomplices whom he had met in jail during his previous arrest around 20 years back. “The accused kept changing his mobile phone and also the sim cards. He was hiding in a house at Akkalkot in Solapur district and was staying alone. He is a very dangerous criminal and this is his fifth murder. Previously he has committed two double murders in the year 1995 and 1999. During those murders as well he went into hiding for close to two years after the murders,” police inspector Balasaheb Khade from Local Crime Branch (LCB), Raigad, said.

The police have also seized two country made pistols and 18 live cartridges from the accused. The accused, originally from Kalburgi in Karnataka came to Retibandar in Belapur at the age of 15 to work with his brother. His first murder was in the year 1995 when he killed his sister’s husband and husband’s brother.

“His sister died of burns and he suspected that her husband had killed her and hence he killed her husband and brother-in law. The second double murder was of a manager and driver of a transport company for whom he worked in Panvel. In all his murders, he used fire arms,” Khade said.

In this murder, the victim, identified as Chandrakant Satu Kamble (53) was found dead in his cabin near the railway crossing at Kolad on August 21 by a passerby. In 2016, Shetty had met Kamble’s sister Vimal and after a brief affair, they got married to each other. After few months into the marriage, Shetty purchased a house in Kolad wherein the couple stayed. After few more months, his wife left him and filed for a divorce which is still going on in court. Meanwhile, Shetty planned to sell the house in Kolad. Kamble told Shetty that he will have to share the amount received after the sale of the house with him as he was taking care of Vimal. Shetty did not want to share the amount and had frequent fights with Kamble over the same.

The police had found the two wheeler used in the crime, near the Kolad house and also cctv footage of a road wherein in Shetty was seen passing by using the same bike at the time of the murder which helped them identify the accused. Four teams with 24 office staff were formed to trace the accused. The accused has been remanded to police custody till September 23.