The story behind the arrest of Bannanje Raja in Casablanca

Police got wind of don Bannanje Raja’s hideout when his wife partied with him in Casablanca

Bengaluru, 14 Feb 2015 (Bangalore Mirror): Women have proved to be the undoing of many an underworld don, and the case of Karnataka’s Bannanje Raja is no different. 

 

After eluding Indian cops for over five years, the wanted ’killer’ was nabbed in Casablanca, Morocco, a few days ago. And providing vital clues to Karnataka’s Internal Security Division (ISD), India’s premier foreign intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and the Dubai police about his whereabouts was a woman reported to be his wife. 

 

The wife’s visit to Casablanca to party with her man on last New Year’s Eve led the long arm of the law to Raja’s hideout. 

 

Efforts to nail the don began three months ago when Raja made ransom calls to Praveen Shetty, a well-known Dubai-based hotelier who is a native of Udupi, during the latter’s visit to Karnataka. Police registered a case in Udupi, but there was no headway. A senior police officer then advised Shetty to travel to Dubai and record phone calls if Raja called him for ransom again, so that the recorded calls could be used as evidence to lodge a complaint with police in Dubai. 

 

A senior police officer from ISD told Bangalore Mirror, "Raja came to know that Shetty had reached Dubai and called him for money. Shetty recorded the call and submitted it to Dubai cops when he lodged a complaint there against Raja. This was the first time a criminal case was lodged in Dubai against an underworld don from India. Dubai police got cracking with help from RAW and Karnataka police. Karnataka cops played a key role by providing Dubai police with in-depth evidence against Raja." 

 

Karnataka police cornered every person connected to Bannanje Raja and gathered information. This information helped state cops ascertain that a woman, said to be Raja’s wife, was living in Dubai. 

 

Investigators knew that Raja and his wife had many duplicate passports, but no one knew which passport they used to travel. 

 

The officer said, "Dubai police and RAW managed to track down the wife’s number and gather details about her passports. A major breakthrough came when simultaneous probes by ISD and RAW, and Dubai police tracked down the passport she was using." Checks with the passport authorities in Dubai and Mumbai showed that she was using a duplicate passport forged in Mumbai. The wife’s name on the passport was Sona Hegde and her husband’s name Kumar Hemanth Hegde. 

 

When they trawled through the records of travels made by Sona using the fake passport, investigators stumbled on the fact that she had visited Casablanca last New Year’s Eve. 

 

The officer said, "Dubai police tipped off Moroccan police, who found that Sona had been to Casablanca to party with Bannanje Raja, who was living there with the monicker Kumar Hemanth Hegde. Moroccan cops promptly arrested Raja. Though Raja had fled to Dubai long back, his relocation to Morocco was not known. Raja led a fairly clean life in Casablanca city and did not have any history of crime there. Karnataka police are investigating if the woman is the real wife of Raja." 

 

Meanwhile, state police on Friday denied rumours that Raja had been let off by Moroccan police.

 

 

WHO IS BANNANJE RAJA?

Forty-seven-year-old Bannanje Raja (aka Bannanje Rajendra) is a native of Udupi and holds an arts degree. His tryst with crime seems to have started with an assault on a fellow student when he was a Pre-University student at Poornaprajna College, Udupi. Soon he graduated to murder and was on the run. After working as a bus agent in Udupi and Bengaluru, Raja started calling wealthy businessmen for ransom. Extortion became his mainstay. He terrorised coastal Karnataka and was wanted in several cases by police in Mangaluru, Bengaluru, Karwar and Maharashtra. The number of cases against Raja soon stacked up to 40. The gangster fled to Dubai several years ago and continued his "ransom business". The CBI put out a Red Corner Interpol Alert in 2011. Raja hit headlines in December 2013 when his henchmen gunned down a cooperative and realtor in Ankola despite the latter being provided police protection. Raja had called the victim, Ramachandra Narayan Naik, several times for ransom.

 

HOW THE DON WAS TRACKED IN CASABLANCA

1. Hotelier lodges an extortion complaint against Bannanje Raja in Dubai

2. Karnataka cops tell Dubai counterparts that Raja’s wife Sona Hegde lives in Dubai

3. Dubai police and RAW track Sona’s number and her passport

4. Sona’s passport turns out to be fake. Sleuths find out Sona travelled to Casablanca last New Year’s Eve

5. Dubai cops tip off Moroccan police -- who find out that Sona was partying with Raja on New Year’s Eve

6. Moroccan cops zero in on Raja and arrest him