Ravi Poojary aides on murder mission held

The Central Crime Branch (CCB) police on Friday claimed to have thwarted an attempt by five associates of underworld don Ravi Poojary to murder industrialists in the City.

Police busted the gang and seized lethal weapons, a car and records pertaining to disputed lands in and around the City. The suspects are Harish, 39, a resident of Nagarabhavi, Radhakrishna, 32, of Byrasandra, Sunil, 32, from Haleyangadi in Mangalore, Keshav Pradeep Bhat, 42, of Konankunte and Ramesh, 32, a resident of Hongasandra.

The suspects were rounded up when they were conspiring to execute their murder plans near Kengeri Satellite Road on Thursday night. They told the police that they were associates of Poojary and were acting at his behest. The gang was in touch with Kali Yogish, a rowdy and Poojary’s confidant operating from an unknown place abroad. Poojary passed on the contact numbers of the various industrialists in Bangalore to the suspects through Yogish, directing them to extort money from the businessmen.

Manish Shetty, another associate of Poojary lodged in a jail, used to provide details of disputed lands in and around Bangalore to Poojary. Poojary passed on the details to the five suspects directing them to settle disputes for money. He had also instructed them to finish off businessmen and land owners who refuse to pay up.

Yogish had sent large sums of money to the suspects through Sunil Bangera to execute their plans, police said. The suspects approached parties disputing over land and promising to resolve the dispute. They collected details of the land in question and passed on its details to Poojary who, in turn, issued life threats to the warring parties and demanded that they pay up or be prepared to face death. Thus, the gang extorted crores of rupees from businesspeople, police said.

Keshav Pradeep Bhat was allegedly involved in an armed robbery case in Subramanyapura. Harish was allegedly involved in peddling cocaine, abduction, assault and attempt to murder. Shenoy was allegedly involved in an abduction and an attempt-to-murder case in Bangalore, police said.

Two run over by train

Two men died on the spot after they allegedly came under the wheels of a train in separate incidents in the City on Thursday night.

A 35-year-old man was mowed down by a train while he was crossing the tracks at Challaghatta.

Chandrash­ekhar, married with two children, had suffered a paralytic stroke a few months ago, police said. An unidentified man aged around 35 years was found dead on the railway tracks near the East Railway Station.