Pics: Spoorthi Ullal
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (JD)
Mangaluru, Dec 30: Notorious underworld element Bannaje Raja, who was arrested from Morocco sometime back and brought to Udupi, was produced in the second JMFC court in Mangaluru on Wednesday December 30.
He was produced in court in a case relating to firing at the car of a real estate businessman near Kadri Park in the city sometime back.
On Wednesday morning, Bannanje, who was brought here from Hindalaga jail in Belagavi, was produced amid tight security at the second JMFC court here. The police had appealed for seven days' custody for Bannanje but the court reduced the period and ordered five days of police custody.
Deputy commissioner of police (crime), Dr Sanjeev Patil, and assistant commissioner of police, Tilak Chandra, oversaw the security arrangement in the court complex.
Unknown assailants had arrived in a motor bike at around 7 pm on May 25, 2011, when Suresh Bhandary of Prithvi Developers came out and was about to leave in his car near Kadri Park here. They had fled after firing at Bhandary, but the bullets had not hit anyone. A special team of police that was formed to investigate the case had arrested seven associates of Bannanje Raja in connection with the case. Devudas Shetty from Kottara Chowki, Neeraj Srivastav from Gorakhpur, UP, Ali Hussain from Gorakhpur, Vinod Kulal from Jalligudde, as well as Amit Chaurasia and Rehaj Khan from Gorakhpur and Puttaswamy from Gokulam Mysuru were arrested, the last three for visiting the city for selling pistols.
He also faces charged in two other cases under Bunder and Barke police limits, hearing for which will be done in the coming days.
Raja was arrested in Morocco in February this year, and brought to New Delhi on August 14 and then to Belagavi for investigation into the Ankola shootout case of 2014 in which businessman and BJP leader R N Naik was killed. He was later brought Udupi where he faces four cases and then shifted to Belagavi prison. Altogether, he is under investigation in connection to 16 of the 44 cases against him.