Udupi: The Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate extended the judicial custody of the three main accused in the Bhaskar Shetty murder case- Bhaskar Shetty’s wife Rajeshwari Shetty, their son Navneet Shetty and priest Niranjan Bhat upto September 6. They were in judicial custody since August 16. This was extended by 14 days by the court.

The two more accused Niranjan’s father Srinivas Bhat and Niranjan’s car driver Raghavendra, held on charges of destruction of evidence were in judicial custody since August 11. The court remanded both of them in police custody on a plea by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) till August 29.

 The court also granted permission for taking blood samples of Bhaskar Shetty’s mother and brother for DNA profiling.

Bhaskar Shetty, a businessman, went missing from his house here on July 28 and his mother Gulabi Shetty lodged a missing complaint at the Manipal police station on July 29. Rajeshwari (46) and Navneet (24) were arrested on the charge of murdering Shetty and destroying evidence on August 7.

Niranjan Bhat (25) was arrested on August 8 for allegedly helping in disposing off Bhaskar Shetty’s body after burning it in a ‘yagna kunda’ room at Nandalike village and immersing the ashes in a rivulet at Palli village. Srinivas Bhat and Raghavendra were arrested on August 10 on the charge of destruction of evidence in the case. So far, the police have not retrieved Shetty’s body.

Pratap Reddy, Additional Director General of Police, CID, told presspersons here that they are probing the case from all angles and refused to comment on the handling of the case by the local police.

The government handed over the case to the CID on August 16 amidst allegations that the local police had not handled it properly.