Arrest of Bannanje Raja's Aide: The Modus Operandi
Faisal Fareed
Daijiworld Media Network - Lucknow
Lucknow, Sep 3: The Special Task Force (STF) of Uttar Pradesh (UP) arrested an active member of Karnataka-based underworld don Raja Bannanje on Friday September 2. The arrested gangster has confessed his involvement in the murderous attack on Suresh Bhandary of Prithvi Developers in Mangalore and firing at Airody Jewellers in Udupi.
As per STF reports, lately there were inputs that various underworld dons such as Chota Rajan, Dawood Ibrahim, Hemant Pujari and Ravi Pujari etc were luring the youths of UP to the underworld. In the process, STF got information that Karnataka's underworld don Bannanje Raja too has infiltrated the state and his henchmen were engaged in execution of crimes besides smuggling of illegal arms and ammunitaions. Innocent youths were lured by them to the crime world.
Javed
While developing the lead, SSP STF Vijay Prakash and ASP Jai Prakash directed the STF to collect all possible details about the Raja's nexus in UP. During investigation STF arrested one Neeraj Srivastava aka Rahul aka Sunil aka Manish Srivastava, presently a resident of Shahpur, Gorakhpur and native of Siwan, Bihar on March 27, 2009. One associate of Neeraj was also arrested along with illegal
cartridges, arms and marijuana. A case in this regard was registered at Gomti Nagar police station of Lucknow. Later, Neeraj was released on bail and he came in contact with Bannanje Raja of Karnataka, while the STF still kept him on their radar.
In August 2011, they got the information that Neeraj had gone to Mangalore along with one of his friends. STF exchanged vital information with their counterparts in Mangalore. Due to the lead provided by STF of UP, Mangalore police arrested Neeraj Srivastava, his associate Ali Hussain aka Ravi, a resident of Varanasi along with five others who were working for Bannanje Raja on August 25, 2011. During interrogation Neeraj confessed that he was involved in a murderous attack on the owner of Prithvi Developers Suresh Bhandary at Kadri Park in Mangalore on May 26 and firing at Airody Jewellers at Udupi on August 19. Both the crimes were carried out at the instructions of Raja.
During investigation it was found that one Javed aka Ajay, a resident of Varanasi was also involved in both the incidents. The police inspector of East Police Station, Mangalore submitted a written request to STF for arresting Javed. Acting on the request, Javed was arrested from Gomti Nagar on Friday. STF also recovered a Tata Indica car UP - 65- 3556, two mobile phones and three SIM cards from his
posession.
After his arrest Javed apprised the police that he was acquainted with Neeraj Srivastava through Adesh Singh of Varanasi. Javed went to Mysore in November 2010 along with Neeraj for kidnapping a hotelier.
However, the kidnapping was aborted as hotelier ran away from the vehicle. The incident occured in the third week of December, 2010. Similarly, the owner of Prithvi Developers Suresh Bhandary escaped a fatal attack on May 26, 2011. All these crimes were carried at the instructions of Raja who arranged for Javed's stay and food, besides giving them Rs 20,000 per incident. Their latest plan was to attack the owner of Century Builders in Bangalore. Later, Mangalore police secured the necessary transit remand for the accused from the court for taking him to Karnataka.