Udupi: The Supreme court, on Monday rejected the bail petition of 52-year-old Rajeshwari Shetty, the prime accused in the sensational Bhaskar Shetty murder case. This is the second time that the accused was declined bail by the top court.

Upholding the argument of the state government counsel that 36 witnesses, including Gulabi Shetty, mother of the victim are pending to be examined, the apex court bench comprising of Justices S A Bobde and L Nageswara Rao declined bail to the accused.

The court, however allowed her to renew her plea after six months.

Rajeshwari’s counsel Basava Prabhu Patil while seeking the bail had contended that his client has been in prison for over 18 months now even though the probe into the case stands complete and the supplementary charge sheet filed. Earlier on August 10 last year, the court had refused bail to Rajeshwari as the investigations in the case were ongoing.

It may be recalled that the murder of the NRI entrepreneur had shaken the entire district of Udupi and Dakshina Kannada and was considered to be the rarest of rare case.

The accused along with her son, Navneet Shetty are said to murdered Bhaskar Shetty in cold-blood and later with the aid of priest Niranjan Bhat had burnt his body in a homa-kunda and disbursed the remains into the river. A DNA report confirmed that the remnants recovered from the river during the investigation were that of the victim.

Their arrests came after the victim’s mother filed a missing complaint with the cops on July 28.