Mangaluru: Ilyas, a notorious criminal who also held the post of Youth Congress Vice-President was murdered by few youths in broad daylight at his residence here on January 13.
A resident of Ullala Sundaribagh, Ilyas took to rowdy ways at an early age of 16 and has been too jail in a case of communal riot. He was also the prime accused in the stabbing case of Kamalaksha, an auto driver in Ullal in 2010.
Later, on his release from jail, Ilyas started working with a firm involved in the car rental business. Having learnt the tricks of the trade, he himself set up his own office named “Target” in Ullal and used to rent out cars and motorbikes. Around 35 youth were involved in this business of his.
The office, however, was reportedly a front for his notorious activities which involved threatening, honeytrapping builders or businessmen for ransom. Ilyas had reportedly secured a sum of Rs 30 Lakh from a businessman after filming him in a compromising position and later threatening to release the video in social media. Reportedly, the ransom amount was collected in the presence of a Congress leader. Ilyas was booked in this case.
Later, Ilyas and his team were involved in many instance of honey trapping businessmen. Ilyas used youths from Alakala, Ullala, Surathkal, Fizal Nagara to execute his crimes. He had been involved in three murder attempt cases. Even as he faced these allegations, Ilyas contested for the post of Youth Congress President by applying online. He, however lost the elections and was elected vice-president of Ullal wing.
It is also said that Ilyas managed to elude arrest inspite of a warrant against him since he had the backing of powerful politicians.
The recent murder of Zubair, who was actively fighting against the ganja mafia was carried out by members of the Target group namely, Althaf, Suhail and Thaju Manda Asif.
Though the accused in Zubair murder hailed from Surathkal, there were allegations that Ilyas was behind the murder and was in the Omni car used for the crime. The police, however, failed to seize the car. Following this murder, State Minister U T Khader had to face the anger of the local residents because of Ilyas’s associations with the Congress.
After the police booked him under Goonda Act, Ilyas moved away from Ullal and started staying in Krishnapura of Surathkal.
It may be recalled that following the death of Deepak Rao, a picture of Khader with Ilyas had been circulating widely in the social media. Ilyas has also been often spotted with Youth Congress President Mithun Rai, Tumbe Prakash Shetty and Ramanath Rai.
