Bengaluru: Rowdy-sheeter Nagaraj continues to elude arrest

Bengaluru: The city police have nabbed another accomplice of former BBMP corporator and rowdy-sheeter V. Nagaraj, who is currently at large.

However, the police continue to be clueless about Nagaraj’s whereabouts. They have been on the lookout for him since April 14, when a raid was conducted at his house in Srirampura and Rs 14.80 crore in demonetized currency notes were seized.

The city police have arrested Sounder Rajan alias Periyar Appu (31), who is said to be the right hand man of Nagaraj and was involved in his illegal deals. Police said that apart from kidnappings, Rajan had a major role in illegal money exchange activities, after the demonetisation of high value currency notes of '500 and Rs 1,000 denominations.

With Rajan’s arrest the police are hoping to get vital leads about Nagaraj's whereabouts.

Hand over case to CBI
Nagaraj's advocate Sriram Reddy has demanded that the case involving seizure of demonetized currency, involving his client, be handed over to CBI. He also sought a thorough inquiry of the issue.

Police for unconditional surrender of Nagaraj
Meanwhile, it is learnt that Nagaraj’s advocate met a senior police officer and communicated to him the conditions to facilitate his client's surrender. But the officer reportedly told the advocate that they cannot accept any conditions and asked Nagaraj to surrender first. The pre-conditions include the request that Nagaraj not be remanded to police custody and his interrogation should be held only in the presence of his advocate.

Video makes damaging allegations against senior police officers
Former corporator and rowdy sheeter V. Nagaraj, who is currently absconding, has released one more video CD, in which he has made serious allegations against top police officers.

Nagaraj said police officers were frustrated as they were unable to convert their black money into white and were therefore filing false cases against him. “You (police) have taken the money that was given to me. Please stop filing false cases against me. I know you people have gone mad as you are not able to convert thousands of crores of black money you have. That is why you are frustrated and filing false cases against me,” he alleged.

 Meanwhile, he appreciated Home Minister Dr. G. Parameshwar for his statement that the government will initiate action against IPS or IAS officers if found guilty. “He (Dr. Parameshwar) is a gentleman. They need not try to search for me. Let the Home Minister call me, I will be present in front of him in 10 minutes. But he should order to cancel all the false cases filed against me.”

“Police and media are calling me rowdy and I have 40-50 cases. Please refer to the documents. Except for one attempt to murder case, all the rest are petty cases related to election campaigning. I have decided not to contest in the next election. I will support some good candidates and let them win,” Nagaraj said, as he broke down.

Requests CM to control IPS officers:
“Thousands of people approach police to get justice and relief. But what are the police are doing? They want both pay and payoffs. I request the Chief Minister to advise and control the corrupt IPS officers. Who knows, if I am frustrated because of these false cases and commit suicide in front of Vidhana Soudha, you (the CM) will get the blame. Please refer my case to the CBI, all these corrupt IPS officers will have to remove their uniform and go to jail,” Nagaraj said in the video.