Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, Inspector General of Police (Western Range) Gopal Hosur said they were planning to extort money from Mangalore-based wealthy businessmen after killing the aides of Ravi Poojary.
The arrested are Manjunath (22) of Chikmagalur, Sushil Kumar (24), Lathish Nayak (21), Ashwin Anchan (25), Suresh Alben D’Souza (38), Lohit Gatti (21), Praveen (30) and Sushanchandra (22) of Mangalore, Ganesh Shivaram Shetty (35) of Ashokwadi in Mumbai, Rakesh Mishra (21) of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh and Manjunath (21) of Aralimara Road in Chikmagalur.
Among the arrested Ganesh Shetty is a sharp shooter and key accused in the murder of Mahendra Pratap in Mumbai in 1994. Kingpin of the gang, Harish Shetty has escaped to Nepal, the IGP said.
The police got the hint of their extortion plan when they were trying to arrest Manjunath for assaulting Moosa Kunhi at Maddadka near Belthangady. They were arrested from a rented house at Dambel in Ashoknagar, Mangalore and another house at Chandrakatte of Chikmagalur, Gopal Hosur said.
The police have seized a revolver, three bullets, Rs 63,000 cash, six lethal weapons and cellphones. Chota Shakeel had given Rs 2 lakh to the accused through a private money exchange firm, he added. The IGP also announced a Rs 20,000 reward to the DCIB team.
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