A man accused of killing two prominent Bajrang Dal leaders and his associate were murdered inside Mangalore jail on Monday by a rival gang seeking revenge on communal lines, possibly triggered by the growing unrest within the underworld following Chhota Rajan’s arrest.
Dubai-based criminal Vicky Shetty said over the phone that his gang orchestrated the killing of Madur Yusuf and his aide Ganesh Shetty to avenge the murders of Hindus, sparking violent sectarian clashes inside the prison complex that injured 12 people.
Vicky aka Balakrishna Shetty has been on the run for several years and is known to be close to Rajan and mob boss Ravi Poojary, both of whom have recently projected themselves as “patriotic dons”.
“The entire underworld is churning following the arrest of Chhota Rajan. There are massive realignments happening in the crime world right now and we fear there will be similar attacks and counter attacks in the coming days,” a Bengaluru-based central intelligence officer told HT. Shetty said Yusuf was the target but Ganesh was killed for trying to save his boss.
Yusuf, an undertrial in Mangalore prison, was a hitman for the hard-line Islamist outfit Popular Front of India. In an interview with this reporter in 2013, he confirmed murdering BJP and Bajrang Dal leader Sukananda Shetty in December 2006 and saffron party functionary Polali Ananthu in June 2005.
In the interview, Yusuf accused the PFI of abandoning him and sounded keen to return to a normal life and open a shop if he got released.
Mangalore Jail has seen several such incidents of communally-charged confrontation inside the premises where dozens of criminals belonging to Hindu and Muslim extremist outfits are lodged.
