Mangalore: 11 Chhota Shakeel ‘aides’ held

The Hindu

• They had planned to kill four persons of a rival gang: police 

Haul:Gopal Hosur (left), Inspector-General of Police (Western Range) and Commissioner of Police, inspecting the materials recovered from

MANGALORE: The District Crime Intelligence Bureau (DCIB) has arrested 11 persons who are allegedly aides of underworld don Chhota Shakeel.

Announcing this at a press conference here on Wednesday, Superintendent of Police A.S. Rao said that the accused were planning to murder four persons of a rival gang to gain control over the extortion racket in the city.

Mr. Rao said that the DCIB was investigating the September 2009 case of extortion and assault on Moosa Kunhi of Belthangady. They identified one Manjunath from Chikmagalur as the prime accused in the case.

Based on a tip-off, the DCIB personnel raided a house at Dombel here on Tuesday and arrested Manjunath (22), Sushil Kumar (24), Latish Nayak (21), Ashwin Anchan (25), Suresh Alban D’Souza (38), Lohith Gatti (21), Sushan Chandra (22), and Praveen (30).

During interrogation, the police said, it was revealed that the eight persons were part of the Chhota Shakeel gang and had been entrusted with the job of eliminating four members of the Ravi Poojary gang. The police recovered a list of names and contact numbers of several prominent businessmen and politicians from the accused.

The accused also revealed that they had entrusted the task of carrying out the killings to four Mumbai-based sharpshooters, who were also part of the Chhota Shakeel gang, and that they were at a hideout in Chikmagalur.

A police team left for Chikmagalur and arrested three of the four persons. They were identified as Ganesh Shivaram Shetty (35), Rakesh Mishra (28) and Manjunath (21). The team also recovered a revolver and other weapons, three cartridges, mobile phones, and Rs. 63,000 from the trio.

The fourth person, identified as Harish Shetty, managed to give the police the slip.