Udupi: Police have started questioning the Udupi based underworld don Bannanje Raja (47) alias Rajendra Kumar Shettygar, who was harrassing rich people from the coastal region for hafta (protection money) here on Saturday.
One of most wanted criminals, Raja has 44 cases have been registered against him in 15 police stations in five districts. The police brought him to India from Morocco on Friday.
At present, Udupi SP Annamalai has started questioning him over the murder of R N Nayak, a businessman from Uttara Kannada.
In 2013, Raja from Morocco had called and threatened R N Nayak to give him hafta. When Nayak refused, Raja had him shot through his aides and a case was registered against him under Koca act.
As Uttara Kannada comes under Belagavi limits, he has been produced in the Belgavi district court to investigate cases under Koca act and sent to police custody for 15 days. As SP Annamalai is in Udupi, Raja has been kept in a secret place for 15 days of questioning.
India has made an agreement with Morocco to bring back Raja and out of 44, only 16 cases which have solid witness will be investigated. 4 cases in Udupi and Mangaluru, one case each in Uttara Kannada and Shimoga and 9 cases in Bengaluru will be the investigated cases.
At present, Belagavi court has appointed Udupi SP to investigate only the murder case of R N Nayak and remaining cases will be investigated phase by phase under the direction of the court.
On Saturday at 1.55 pm under tight security, Raja was brought to Udupi city police station and took his signature for few important documents and was immediately taken to the secret place.
He smiled at the media and posed for the cameras as he was brought in by the police.
About Crorepathi Bannanje Raja:
In 1991 he murdered Kushala Shetty near Kokkarne in Udupi and when police started hunting for him, he escaped to Dubai in 1994 empty handed but now he is said to have hundred crores of money.
Married to Sona Hemanth Hegde, he also has a child. He started with a cloth business. He has three fake passports in the name of Raja, Hemanth Hegde, Raj Kumar etc and for this reason he was caught by the Dubai police in 1999. From there, he escaped to Morocco and has been on the run ever since.
He has even appointed a lawyer prior to his arrival
Six months back, Morocco police arrested Raja for threatening businessman Praveen Shetty. He had a lawyer to defend him there as well and tried to move to Dubai instead of India but he failed in his attempt. Surprisingly he has already appointed a lawyer in India even before the police brought him here.
Read more:
Underworld don Bannanje Raja finds escape route yet again!
DG & IGP: Bannanje Raja will be extradited to Karnataka soon
