In a major development in the Neeraj Grover murder, the crime branch of the Mumbai police on Thursday arrested an advocate for allegedly threatening a witness.
Acharya Murthy was picked up from Mazgaon, police said. He was earlier defending prime accused and Kannada actress Maria Susairaj.Earlier in September, the police had arrested two persons, Munshi Yadav and Raju Wankhede, for threatening panch witness Usha Ramalu and telling her not to depose against Susairaj.
“During the confessional statement before the magistrate, Yadav said he had threatened Ramalu at Murthy’s behest,” said Rakesh Maria, joint commissioner of police (crime). “There is telephonic evidence against the advocate. More arrests are likely in the case.” Murthy has been booked on charges of threatening a person to give false evidence and of criminal intimidation.
As per the first information report filed by Ramalu, Yadav had come to her house in Goregaon to threaten her. “The witness said Yadav took her outside and made her speak to Wankhede. She said she was also made to speak to Raja Thakur, one of the actress’s lawyers, on the phone,” Maria said.
“We sought details of Wankhede’s call records, which revealed that Thakur and Murthy had spoken to him on several occasions,” Maria said.
Last month, Murthy and Thakur withdrew from the case and denied any role in trying to scare the witness.
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