Manjeshwar: A road rage incident that spiralled into personal vendetta led to the cold-blooded murder of Mohammed Shareef (59), a Mangaluru-based autorickshaw driver whose body was found stabbed and dumped in an open well at Kunjathur Paduvu, Manjeshwar, on April 10.

Kasaragod police on Monday arrested Abhishek Shetty, a native of Surathkal on the outskirts of Mangaluru. Shetty, employed as a school bus driver at Ryan International School until recently, has a history of drug abuse, said Kasaragod Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) V Balakrishnan Nair.

Contrary to initial suspicions of a group assault, the ASP said the murder was a one-man job.

Based on Shetty’s statement, the officer said the conflict began when the accused while driving school bus no. 13, clashed with Shareef at a traffic junction in Mangaluru over the right-of-way. Shareef allegedly confronted Shetty for not giving way and, according to Shetty, spoke to him rudely.

After the altercation, Shetty said autorickshaws in the city began deliberately cutting in front of bus no. 13 to block its path. He suspected Shareef had orchestrated it through the auto drivers' union.

Shetty believed Shareef had also complained to the school about his rash driving, eventually costing him his job. "Losing the job led to regular fights with his wife," the officer said. Shetty blamed Shareef for everything that went wrong, police said.

On the night of April 9, Shetty spotted Shareef at Baikampady and hired his autorickshaw around midnight. During the initial road rage incident, Shetty had long hair. By now, he had cropped it short, because of which Shareef may not have recognised him, said police.

Shetty directed the autorickshaw towards the isolated Kunjathur Paduvu in Manjeshwar, about 36 km away — an area police say he frequented for drug deals. There, he allegedly stabbed Shareef in the back of the neck and dumped the body in a large, parapet-less well accessible only on foot. He then hitchhiked on a passing scooter to Thalapady and spent the night at a relative’s house.

The breakthrough came swiftly. A Special Investigation Team (SIT), formed under ASP Balakrishnan Nair and DySP C K Sunil Kumar, and led by Manjeshwar SHO Inspector E Anoob Kumar, examined footage from 208 CCTV cameras and gathered intelligence from autorickshaw drivers and the cyber police.

With technical assistance from Mangaluru police, Shetty was identified and arrested within three days.

Shetty, who has prior drug-related offences, was allegedly under the influence of narcotics at the time of the murder, said the ASP. The knife used in the crime remains missing. "The investigation is on to corroborate his version," Balakrishnan Nair said.

On the night of April 9, Shareef’s family in Mulki, on the outskirts of Mangaluru, filed a missing complaint with the Mulki police after he failed to return home and remained unreachable.

Shareef’s body was found on the evening of April 10 after residents of Kunjathur spotted an abandoned autorickshaw. A pair of slippers and bloodstains led them to the well.

The ASP praised the SIT for cracking the case, which initially pointed to three passengers as suspects. He said Shetty had planned and executed the murder alone — a chilling act of retribution born of a petty roadside altercation.