Kharge in the dark on crucial matters?

By K.V. Subramanya

BANGALORE, OCT. 17. Certain statements made by the Home Minister, Mr. M. Mallikarjun Kharge, at a ``Meet the Press'' programme on Sunday seem to indicate that his officers had not briefed him properly on the relevant matters.

Replying to a question on non-extradition of the underworld don, Muthappa Rai, Mr. Kharge said the gangster could be extradited to India if there was a specific complaint against him.

But, Rai's name tops the list of the most wanted criminals of the Bangalore City police. More than half a dozen serious cases are pending against him, the latest being the murder of a realtor, Subbaraju, who was shot dead in January last on Seshadripuram Main Road.

The Vyalikaval police have filed a chargesheet against Rai in the Subbaraju murder case, and the Bangalore police have sought the Interpol's help to nab the elusive gangster. A request was made to the Interpol a year ago, through the Central Bureau of Investigation's Interpol wing. The organisation was requested to serve a ``red corner notice'' to police abroad, to nab the don.

Mr. Kharge also said that Dileep Naik, an accused in the murder of the former Karwar MLA, Vasanth Asnotikar, was extradited from a Gulf nation.

The manner in which Naik was apprehended shows that he was not extradited. Naik fled to Dubai after Asnotikar's murder, and a team of the Corps of Detectives (CoD) led by the then Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Mr. B.G. Jyothi Prakash Mirji, went to the emirate in search of him.

As an extradition treaty between India and the Gulf nations was not in operation at that time, arresting Naik on foreign soil would have amounted to violation of international laws. Therefore, police adopted a different strategy to bring him to India.

As senior officers of the CoD themselves said, the team in Dubai established contacts with Naik, and ``persuaded'' him to return to India. ``Naik did not fly to India with the CoD team. He arrived in a separate aircraft, and was arrested only after he landed in India. Thus, the question of his extradition does not arise at all,'' CoD officials maintained.

Another claim made by Mr. Kharge was that 90 per cent of the Dandupalya gang members have been arrested. But the fact is that police themselves are not sure about the strength of the gang, and about how many gang members are still at large.

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Section  : Southern States
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