The Karnataka Police recently solved a 13-year-old murder case, showcasing an unusual investigative strategy involving a cricket tournament. The Vishwanath Rai murder case remained unsolved for years, despite, police having the suspect in mind but failing to trace him. Interestingly, the case took a dramatic turn during a cricket tournament organized by the police, which helped in gathering information and identifying the suspects. There, the police got the lead that the suspect was living a new life with a fake identity in Tamil Nadu.What was the incident all aboutThe murder rocked the nation, when on June 9, 2001, Mallika Rai, the wife of Vishwanath Rai, who was a financer, approached the Puttur Police to file the missing complaint after her husband did not return home for 2 days. In her complaint, Mallika alleged that her husband was accompanying Vishwanath Shetty, the manager of Shiva Finance, the finance company, at that time. According to her complaint, she last spoke to her husband on June 7. She also alleged that Shetty picked up the call, whenever she called and after being asked to hand over the phone to her husband, Shetty allegedly cut the call. Subsequently, while investigating the case, police revealed that Rai was being murdered over a financial dispute. Police learnt that another man who was accompanying them was Subhash Chandra, who after getting arrested revealed that Shetty murdered Rai with an iron rod and took the body away with him in the car. How did the police track the accusedIn a meticulous investigation spanning years, Lokayukta police inspector Kumar unravelled the mystery surrounding Vishwanath Shetty, who had evaded authorities for over a decade following a murder. Suspicions arose when Shettys family showed no interest in his whereabouts despite being questioned by the police. Tracking his sons cricket activities led to a crucial mobile number, connecting Shettys family to periodic calls from distant locations like Sathyamangalam and Chamarajanagar.Eventually, police confirmed Shettys presence in Erode, where he operated under an alias, Raj, running a finance company. This breakthrough led to Shettys arrest in August 2014, finally bringing closure to the long-standing case of Vishwanath Rais murder.This approach provided a platform for community interaction, allowing the police to gather crucial intelligence that ultimately led to cracking the case.
