Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (SP)
Mangalore, Mar 12: Relating to the threat posed to the staff working at the office of Bharati Builders and Developers at Anegundi Bejai in the city on Monday March 10 by two motor bike-borne ruffians, who left behind live bullet which had popped out of a pistol held by one of them at this office, the policemen have been making all out efforts to trace the culprits. The policemen have already interrogated people from the city found in the rowdy lists maintained by them.
Recordings of the closed circuit television cameras fitted in the office are also being checked for possible clues. The policemen are gathering information about the visit of strangers to this office, it is learnt. At the same time, mystery shrouds a letter the unknown youth had handed over to the staff for being handed over to builder, Lokanath G Shetty, who was away from office at that time. While the police department has chosen to be tight-lipped about this letter, they have also based their investigation on the contents of this letter. The city police commissioner said a conscious decision to withhold details of the letter was taken in the interests of probe being held into incident.
At the same time, the policemen also want to find out whether those who posed death threats were actually from outside Karnataka, or whether they opted to speak in Hindi to hoodwink the concerned into believing that they were outsiders.
Noted criminal, Bejai Raja, who was assassinated by underground elements some years back, belonged to this area. There are rumours that Lokanath G Shetty had links with Bejai Raja when the latter was alive. Going by this theory, there is a fair chance of the mischief mongers representing rival underworld fugitive, Ravi Poojary. It is likely that the message handed over to the builder was sent by Ravi Poojary, it is surmised.
It is gathered that several builders from the city including Lokanath Shetty had received threat calls from the underworld about two months ago. In that occasion, these builders, under the leadership of the local unit of Confederation of Real Estate Developers Associations of India (CREDAI), had handed over a memorandum to the city police commissioner, seeking protection.