Satish Shetty (21 July 1970 – 13 January 2010), popularly known as "Satish", was an Indian social activist, noted for exposing many land scams in Maharashtra. He had used the

Right to Information Act The Right to Information (RTI) is an act of the Parliament of India which sets out the rules and procedures regarding citizens' right to information. It replaced the former Freedom of Information Act, 2002. Under the provisions of RTI Act, an ...

to expose irregularities in Government offices in the last five years. He was killed on 13 January 2010, by unknown attackers in

Talegaon Talegaon is a town on the outskirts of the city of Pune, India. Demographics At the 2001 Census of India, Talegaon Dabhade had a population of 42,574. Males constituted 53% of the population and females 47%. The average literacy rate was 79%, ...

Background and killing

In recent years, Shetty had used the RTI Act to expose large scale land scams involving the leading real estate firm

IRB Infrastructure IRB Infrastructure Developers Limited (formerly ''IRB Infrastructure Developers Private Limited''), is an Indian highway construction company headed by Mr. Virendra Dattatraya Mhaiskar. It was incorporated in 1998, with its headquarters in Mum ...

and its subsidiary Aryan. In 2009, he filed a complaint that forged documents had been used by these firms to acquire large swathes of land in the Taje and Pimploli villages off the Pune-Mumbai highway. After investigations, 90 sale deeds were cancelled, and sub-registrar Ashwini Kshirsagar was suspended. The company blamed land brokers for the irregularities, and the planned IRB township project was eventually scrapped. After this episode, Shetty started getting threat calls. In November 2009, he filed a request with the Pune rural police seeking protection. In the request, he said that he had been receiving threats allegedly originating with Virendra Mhaiskar, chairman of IRB Infrastructure. Protection was not granted. In January 2010, Shetty was knifed by several people while he was at a kiosk reading a paper after his morning walk. The subsequent police investigations proposed a different theory for the murder, ignoring the IRB infrastructure association. Eventually the case was transferred to the CBI. In October 2012, CBI raided the offices of

and that of IRB advocate Ajit Kulkarni. In January 2013, CBI obtained permission to conduct polygraph tests on Mhaiskar, his attorney Kulkarni, and eight others, leading to a 15% drop in the company's share price. Stocks regained 3% after it was said that the polygraph tests of Mhaiskar may not have revealed any incriminating aspects.

Recognition

He was given posthumously the Sajag Nagrik Award, which was received by his brother Sandeep at a function held in

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, ( the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million As of 2021, Pune Metropolitan Region is the largest i ...

National RTI Forum has honoured his martyrdom by naming an award after him as Satish Shetty RTI Gallantry award. In 2011 he was posthumously awarded the NDTV Indian of the Year's LIC Unsung Hero of the Year Award with other

RTI RTI or Rti may refer to: Broadcasters * Radiodiffusion Television Ivoirienne, state broadcaster of Ivory Coast * Radio Taiwan International, a radio station in Taiwan * Reti Televisive Italiane, an Italian broadcaster and subsidiary of Media ...

activists Amit Jethwa, Dattatreya Patil, Vishram Dodiya and Vitthal Gite

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shetty, Satish 1970 births 2010 deaths Right to Information activists People murdered in Maharashtra Indian whistleblowers Activists from Maharashtra 2010 murders in Asia 2010 murders in India

Background and killing

Recognition

See also

References