Fugitive Bannanje Raja is finally in Bengaluru cops' net

BENGALURU: A six-member special team led by additional commissioner of police (West) CH Pratap Reddy will fly to Morocco to bring back Rajendra Kumar alias Bannanje Raja, 47, who fled the country in 1998. DG&IGP Om Prakash announced that Moroccan police formally arrested the don on Wednesday. "He was living a fugitive's life in various places, including Dubai, Malaysia and Bangkok. He carried out criminal activities through his associates. He was arrested in Bengaluru in 1995, jumped bail and has been elusive since," he said. The Moroccan police detained Ban nanje in February 2015. After Bengaluru cops submitted the required documentation, a local court in Morocco directed its police to arrest Bannanje this week. Bannanje Raja was involved in a string of activities -murder, kidnap, extortion, hawala, drugs, gambling, flesh trade and forgery. Born in Bannanje, near Udupi, in Dakshina Kannada in 1968, he was an average student at school and college, but soon emerged as a student leader.He was known for "rash and aggressive" attitude. He entered criminal records in 1990 when Malpe police in Udupi registered attempt-to-murder and dacoity cases against him. The next year, Bannanje allegedly led a gang into the house of Kushal Shetty in Kokkarne, near Brahmavara in Udupi, and hacked him to death. This murder encouraged Bannanje to begin a hafta business, targeting businessmen in Udupi and Mangaluru. Bannanje extended his activities to Ben galuru in 1992, with the oil trade and land mafia. JJ Nagar police in West Bengaluru arrested him under the Arms Act in 1995. Bannanje was out on bail and has remained elusive ever since. Police discovered Bannanje used four passports, of them three were fake.He procured a fake passport in Mangaluru under the name of Krishna Kumar Kankady, in Bengaluru as Rahim Khaleel Khan, and in Mumbai as Kumara Raja Hemanth Hegde. Red-corner notice issued in 2009: In 2009, Karnataka police, with the help of Interpol, issued a red-corner notice across the globe, requesting police to detain and arrest Bannanje. Pratap Reddy, then IG (Western Range), began collecting details about the fugitive and networked with Interpol. In 2012, Bannanje grew in notoriety when his associates shot dead RN Nayak, a businessman from Ankola in Uttara Kannada, after he refused to give hafta to Bannanje.His associates threatened Nayak's family, asking them to withdraw the police complaint filed against Bannanje. Using aliases and pass ports, Bannanje managed to slink in and out of the country , till he called a local television channel in Bengaluru in 2014, claiming it was his men who had shot RN Nayak dead. "We will kill all those who refuse to give hafta," he had said in the nearly 20-minute interview. The interview proved costly as police tracked his mobile network and alerted Morocco police. A slow but steady investigation by Morocco police yielded results; Karnataka police chief Om Prakash received a call from Interpol on Wednesday, confirming Bannanje's arrest. At 102kg, a weighty case Paper correspondence on Bannanje's cases with different countries in the past five years weighs 102 kg. DG&IGP Om Prakash said: "Carrying papers weighing over 100kg is not easy. I congratulate Pratap Reddy and his team on the success." -TOI