Mangaluru: With rumours of arrest of Naresh Sehnoy making rounds, the police on Sunday confirmed the same stating that the prime accused in RTI activist Vinayak Baliga murder case- Naresh Shenoy has been arrested by them, putting an end to the three month long run by the accused.

Police Commissioner Chandrashekar, on Sunday, in a press conference said that Naresh Shenoy (39) was arrested by Mangaluru city crime branch (CCB) near Hejamady. He also informed that Naresh would be produced in the court soon and an additional chargesheet would be filed.

Several versions of the same were making round since a few days. While some said Naresh had surrendered in Bengaluru, some reports said he was arrested in Kerala. Many others reported that he was nabbed in Mangaluru.

Shenoy faces charges of conspiring the murder, destroying evidence in the case and paying the persons for executing the crime.

The Commissioner said that the persons who helped Naresh abscond and hide will be booked under section 212 of IPC for harbouring the accused. Answering a query, he informed that Naresh had visited Jammu and Kashmir, Lucknow and even places near Nepal border.

Chandra Sekhar said that since the interrogation of Naresh has just begun, the motive behind the murder cannot be ascertained. But it is clear that since Vinayak Baliga was involved in many RTI petitions, the conspirators must have decided to murder him.

However, the Commissioner refused to confirm the issue of Sri Venakatramana temple as the reason behind the murder. He also said that there was no involvement of the underworld and the conspiracy was hatched by the main accused.

Vinayak Baliga was murdered on the morning of March 21 this year. So far, the police have arrested Vinith Poojary, Nishith Devadiga, Shivaprasad alias Shiva, Shailesh alias Shailu, Manjunath Shenoy and Shrikanth in the case. In the chargesheet, the police have named Naresh Shenoy as the prime accused.