‘Dons scout for recruits in jail’

“The interstate gangs are formed inside the prisons and sharp shooters are screened and hired by the dons through their henchmen, who have access to the prison inmates. The best hands are assured huge amounts of protection money for their families in the event of their arrest or death at the hands of the police. The money is routed through hawala, extortion and other criminal activities.

Some business houses, politicians, real estate, entertainment industry and certain communities also routinely pay the underworld protection money, which is a regular source of ‘income’ for the gangsters,” the don reportedly said during police interrogation. Raja was reportedly behind the 2013 R.N. Nayak murder case in Ankola in which he had hired the sharp shooters from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.

Nayak’s murder was a supari killing at the alleged behest of Raja, who was on the run for several years and has more than 40 cases against him in Karnataka. He was pinned down in Casablanca on an Interpol Red Corner Notice (RCN) and deported to the State in August. The arrest of Raja and another notorious underworld don Chota Rajan from Bali has brought to fore the fugitive underworld dons Ravi Poojary, Kali Yogesh and Koraga Vishwanath Shetty, who hail from Mangaluru and are now reportedly ruling the underworld from outside the country.