Activist's killing: Eight cops to undergo polygraph test

Pune, May 2 (IANS) A Maharashtra court here Wednesday granted permission to the CBI to conduct polygraph test on at least nine accused, who include eight policemen, in the 2010 murder of transparency activist Satish Shetty, an official said.

The court's clearance came on the appeal filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for the test on the accused -- who also include a businessman -- to solve the case of Shetty's killing Jan 13, 2010, a probe agency official told reporters.

'Almost all of them have volunteered to undergo the polygraph test. We hope it will help us solve the crime,' a CBI lawyer said.

Among those who will undergo the lie-detector test are IRB construction company's Virendra Mhaiskar and eight policemen, including then inspector Bhausaheb Andhalkar and others who investigated the Shetty case.

'I am ready for the polygraph test. I am innocent and the polygraph test will prove,' Andhalkar said after the court ruling.

Sandeep, brother of the murdered right to information activist Shetty, said that all the cases which he investigated pertained to land deals, including some in which IRB's Mhaiskar and others were involved.

'I submitted the list of the suspects to the court soon after the murder... now that polygraph tests are ordered, the truth will emerge,' Sandeep Shetty said.

Shetty, 38, was killed by unidentified people near his house in Talegaon on the outskirts of Pune.

He was credited with throwing light on several land scams in the picturesque Talegaon-Lonavala region. He also exposed alleged corruption in land deals related to the Mumbai-Pune Expressway over a decade ago.