Slain RTI activist Satish Shetty's brother Sandip Shetty today said that he wanted to intervene in the PIL being heard by the Bombay High Court in connection with his murder.
Satish, a Talegaon-based Right To Information (RTI) activist and an anti-corruption crusader, who had unearthed several land-related scams in the area, was murdered last month by unidentified assailants while on a morning walk.
The high court took suo motu (own its own) notice of the incident, and initiated a PIL. Sandip, Satish's younger brother, was today present in the court. His lawyer said that he wanted to intervene in the PIL, as he had a lot of documents pertaining to Satish's RTI queries.
"He has no confidence in the police," Sandip's lawyer said. The division bench of Justices F I Rebello and JH Bhatia said that it would allow him to become a party.
The state government today informed the court that out of six persons who are suspected to be involved in Satish's murder, five have been arrested so far, and police have sought magistrate's permission to subject them to lie detector test.
Senior advocate D Madon, appointed as amicus curie to assist the court, said that countries such as Mexico and Columbia have special systems for providing protection to activists, and authorities are studying them.
Adjourning the hearing for one week, the high court sought a reply from the government about progress in Shetty murder case, and about the proposed steps for protecting social activists.
The court also sought a reply from Mumbai police commissioner about investigation into six cases of threats or assaults on local social activists.
Mitra, an umbrella organisation of NGOs which has intervened in this PIL, had submitted list of these cases to the police commissioner.
Comments