PANJIM: ACB’s patience and tact helped in a successful ‘mission Shetye’. After almost giving up the final plan to nab him, since Shetye took a lot of time to actually accept the cash from the complainant, their patience finally paid off.
Investigations reveal that Shetye had called the complainant Nishant Kurade on June 5 and asked him to deliver the bribe amount. Kurade had lied he was out of station and would come the next day, to give. sufficient time was sought to lay the trap.
But when Kurade went to deliver the bribe amount, Shetye refused to accept it in his hands and asked the complainant to drop it in his drawer. This led to some tense and dramatic moments for the ACB team that laid the trap and they were on the brink of giving up thinking the plan had failed.
The money and envelope were marked with powder to collect evidence, and had he handled it, his finger prints would be on the envelope. A senior officer instructed the team to wait till Shetye went for lunch, and this wait paid off.
Shetye while going for lunch picked up the money and pushed it in his pocket, placing his thumb prints on them.
It is learnt that the ACB team took the trousers Shetye was wearing as evidence and bought him a new pair. The trousers were collected as evidence as the cash and envelope were laced with phenolphthalein powder that came in contact with the trousers.
Shetye is currently in ACB custody for five days and is being interrogated. On Friday he was taken to search a bank locker in Mapusa. ACB officials said the locker was empty. The locker which is in Panjim in his wife’s name will be searched on Monday, an officer said.
