BENGALURU: Central Division police launched a massive manhunt for the killers of Manish Shetty, the bar owner who was shot dead in front of his bar, off Brigade Road, on Thursday night. It is said that Shetty had criminal antecedents. Police sources said the special teams formed to nab the assailants had fanned out to gather information about the suspects. “The teams have been assigned different tasks. A team has gone to Mangaluru, while the other has gone to Shetty’s hometown in Chikkamagaluru district.
Another team is likely to visit Mumbai. Two other teams are tasked with verifying CCTV footage collected from neighbouring commercial establishments, and analysis of mobile phone tower dump data,” an official said.Police are said to have already gathered credible information about the assailants and are expecting a breakthrough in a day or two.
“The probe so far has established that the murder was over old gang rivalry. We have definite clues of the whereabouts of the killers, and it’s just a matter of time before they are nabbed,” the official added.
Meanwhile, the assailants dumped the vehicles and weapons, including an SBBL gun, used to commit the murder, and police have seized them. “Efforts to trace the owners of the two vehicles are on, but it is possible that the vehicles were stolen. The assailants dumped them in the vicinity of the crime scene, possibly out of fear that they would be caught by police, who were checking vehicles soon after the murder,” another official said.
“It was found that the killers had followed Shetty’s movements for several days before attacking him, and it was a well-planned murder. Shetty used to stand outside his bar most of the time, and the killers took advantage of it,” the officer said. The postmortem, conducted on Friday, revealed that Shetty died due to damage to his lungs.