Cops' wake-up call to rowdies

The houses of as many as 35 men described by police as rowdies and their associates were raided. They were taken to police stations, questioned and released later. The police also seized their vehicles for verification.

The raid followed a meeting of the police top brass on Saturday which took stock of the rising crime in the City and the increasing assertion by the rowdy elements. It decided to raid the houses of rowdies and their associates to create some amount of fear in them.

Joint Commissioner of Police (West Division) Pronab Mohanty and Joint Commissioner of Police (East Division) Dayanand,  DCP (West) S N Sidramappa, DCP (South) Sonia Narang and DCP (North) H S Revanna attended the meeting chaired by police commissioner B G Jyothiprakash Mirji.

The number of crimes involving the rowdy-sheeters, whether they are out of jail or inside, is increasing in the recent past. Many of them are active in film production and real estate business.

They are actively involved behind crimes taking place in film and real estate sectors. Many of them who are in jail, police say, have been active in hatching conspiracies to commit murders, attempts to murder, thefts and abductions. They convert their plans into action once they come out of the prisons. Some of them obtain bail and come out, while some others come out on parole.

“The police summon the rowides to police stations, quizz them and get more details. It is a regular feature. For the first time, the police decided to raid their houses to unearth more details. The raids began at 5 am and all the rowdies were shocked to see the men in khakhi,” said DCP (West) S N Sidramappa.

Houses of 30 rowdies in West Division were raided, but police found no weapons or arms, except a knife at the house of an associate of rowdy-sheeter Gumpa at Cottonpet. The houses of Vedi at Kalasipalya, Gumpa’s three associates in Cottonpet, Rama-Lakshmana in Kamakshipalya, Raghavendra, Sunil and Rape Venkatesh at Vijaynagar and T C Raja at Jnana Bharathi were also raided, the DCP added.

The police seized the vehicles used by the rowdies and went through the documents it in order to ascertain whether they were using any stolen vehicles.

In North Division, the houses of Jedarahalli Krishna in Yeshwanthpur, Ranganath Naidu on Triveni Road and Jagadish in Subramanyanagar were raided, but the police did not find anything noteworthy.

In South division, the house of Maheem, the prime suspect in the murder case of former corporater Diwan Ali and Gopalaiah in Banashankari areas were raided.