NEWSLINKS US EDITION SOUTH ASIA COLUMNISTS DIARY SPECIALS INTERVIEWS CAPITAL BUZZ REDIFF POLL DEAR REDIFF THE STATES ELECTIONS ARCHIVES US ARCHIVES SEARCH REDIFF
Refusal to help the Dawood Ibrahim gang gain a foothold in the Bangalore underworld may have set off a sequence of events which ended with Muthappa Rai's deportation to India, sources in the Bangalore police said.
However, Muthappa Rai denied any connection with the Pakistan-based gangster, Bangalore police sources said.
"I have met Dawood only once in my entire life," he told the police, sources said. "How can the police say I am an important part of the D-Company?"
The police are investigating Rai's connection with the killing of builder Subbaraju last year. Rai has been chargesheeted in this case.
Rai had left Bangalore for Dubai about five years ago.
Police sources said he moved into the house of his kinsman Sharad Shetty, known as an associate of Dawood Ibrahim, in Dubai's upscale Jumera locality.
He has since bought his own flat in the same locality, they said.
Bangalore police sources said Rai fell out with Shetty because he refused to help the latter gain a foothold in the Bangalore underworld.
Rai was deported to India from Dubai in May at the behest of the Karnataka police after spending about two weeks in a Dubai prison for violation of certain immigration procedures, the sources said.
He told the police that he had conveyed to the Dubai police in writing his desire to surrender to the Bangalore police, they said.
However, when the Indian embassy approached the Dubai government with a plea to extradite Rai, the latter simply ignored his earlier request and instead deported him, Rai is reported to have told the police.
He is now lodged in the Bangalore jail, the sources said.
Why did Rai want to surrender risking facing a host of criminal cases and a long spell in prison?
"It's because I trust Police Commissioner H T Sangliana," Rai says rather sanctimoniously. "He will ensure that I am treated fairly by the police and the courts."
Sangliana, who became police commissioner some months ago, enjoys the reputation of being a very straightforward and just cop.
The police say that Rai hopes to be acquitted in all the cases filed against him and emerge a free man.
About eight years ago, Rai had been shot at and seriously injured in an attack by rival gangsters in the premises of the Bangalore high court.
So worried are the cops about safeguarding their star prisoner that he is surrounded by jail staff even when he meets relatives.
Rai's wife and younger son are still in Dubai while older one, he says, is studying in Australia, the sources said.
EARLIER REPORT Dawood aide Muthappa Rai deported from UAE
More reports from Karnataka
Back to top
Tell us what you think of this report
