Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (ANK)

Mangaluru, Jan 24: The police have arrested the main conspirators in connection with murders of Abdul Basheer and Deepak Rao earlier this month.

Basheer was brutally attacked on the night of January 3 in retaliation to the murder of Deepak Rao at Katipalla the same day. Basheer died four days later.

Addressing a press meet here on Wednesday January 24, police commissioner T R Suresh said that the arrested are Mithun alias Kalladka Mithun (28), a resident of Goltamajal, Bantwal, and Tilak Raj Shetty (28), a resident of Akashbhavan, Raju alias Rajesh (21) of Farangipet have been arrested.

The police had earlier arrested Shrijith, Kishan Poojary, Dhanush Poojary, Sandesh Kotian, Pushparaj and Latesh in the case. Another accused, idenitified as Anup (30) of Akashbhavan is still at large.

Tilak Raj, Mithun and Raju are already in jail as undertrials in other criminal cases. They were recently shifted to jails in Belagavi and Bengaluru from Mangaluru jail.

The police commissioner said that the conspiracy to kill was in fact hatched in the jail. "Kishan, Shrijith, Dhanush and others met Mithun, Tilak and Raju in the jail and hatched the conspiracy with the help of Anup," he said.

Regarding motive for the murder, the police commissioner said, "There was no particular reason to target Basheer. They just wanted to kill someone from Kottara Chowki. As Kishan, Shrijith and Dhanush were frequent visitors to Basheer's fast food restaurant, they decided to target him."

Six arrests in Deepak murder case

The police commissioner also said that six more persons have been arrested in connection to the murder of Deepak Rao in Katipalla on January 3.

The arrested are Mohammed Rafiq alias Mango Rafiq (24), Irfan, Mohammed Anas, Mohammed Zahid, Hidayatulla, and Imran Nawaz.

Nawaz is a resident of Jokatte while the others are residents of Katipalla.

All the six are conspirators of the murder, the police commissioner said.

Rafiq is an accused in two attempt-to-murder cases and Irfan in one attempt-to-murder case in is Suratkal police station. Anas is an accused in three cases including murder attempt and assault, while Zahid has five cases against him, including two murder attempts, theft and assault, Hidayatulla is an accused in a harassment case in Suratkal poice station and Nawaz faces an assault case.

The police had earlier arrested Mohammed Naushad, and Mohammed Irshan alias Irsha, Mohammed Nawaz alias Pinky Nawaz, Rizwan alias Ijju, Abdul Azeez and Abdul Azeem in the case.

Arrests in extortion case

Regarding the extortion case where prisoners in Mangaluru jail allegedly tortured a bank manager for Rs 15 lac, the police have arrested five while three others are absconding, the police commissioner said.

Undertrials lodged in the district prison here had allegedly inflicted physical and mental torture on bank manager Sirin Madhusudan who is lodged in the same prison and extorted Rs 15 lac from his parents. Sirin Madhusudan, who was the manager of Kulai branch of Indian Overseas Bank here, is in judicial custody relating to illegal diversion of Rs 55 crore belonging to Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Ltd (KRIDL). The accused were lodged in the same cell as Madhusudan.

The arrested are Mithun Poojary of Goltamajal, Tilak Raj of Akashbhavan, Raju alias Rajesh of Farangipet (all three are also arrested in Basheer murder case), Shivaraj of Kotekar and Nikhil of Kannur, Mangaluru. All of them are already lodged in the district prison.

Two other accused, identitifed as Anup Kumar, Charan and Manoj Kulal alias Kodikere Manoj are absconding.

The police commissioner said that many others who were involved in the case will be arrested in the coming days.

"The money was transferred to Charan's account and withdrawn, after which it was distributed among the accused. Some of them bought jewellery with the money," T R Suresh said.