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Muthappa rai died of brain cancer at a Bangalore hospital on Friday. He was 68 years old.
Surviving two serious attempts in his life, Rai managed to consolidate his dominance over the city’s mafia land, which witnessed a huge boom in post-economy economic liberalization in 1991.
D P Satish
- CNN-News18
- Last update: May 15, 2020 8:12 AM IST
Muthappa Rai, who last breathed on Friday, was not a gift from the garden variety mob. The man who had presided over the Bengaluru underworld for over 30 years was sophisticated, educated and charming. He was around 60 years old. Unlike his predecessors like MP Jairaj and Kothwal Ramachandra, Rai was from a good family near Mangaluru.
Graduated in commerce, he had started his career as an officer in the Public Sector of Vijaya Bank and was a shy man. In the late 1980s, Rai came into contact with the Bengaluru underworld and became an overnight sensation, after he hit then-Bengaluru gift MP Jairaj in broad daylight in 1990. That murder elevated him to the “position” of a mob boss. and he never looked back.
Surviving two serious attempts in his life, Rai managed to consolidate his control over the city’s mafia land, which witnessed a great boom in economic liberalization after the 1991 economy. There was also an attempt on his life in a Bengaluru city court. , when they took him there for a routine appearance. Five bullets hit him, but he survived.
In 1994, during the Karnataka Assembly elections, a leader of the Youth Congress Jayanth Rai was shot dead in his office in Puttur. That murder shook the state, which was not known for political assassinations. It was Muthappa Rai’s right hand. That incident shook Rai and moved all his activities to Bangalore.
Sauvé Rai was from an upper-caste Bunt community and landowner in Puttur, in the Dakshina Kannada district. The same community has produced Bollywood stars like Aishwarya Rai, Shilpa Shetty, and Suniel Shetty. There is a saying that says “Bunts are everywhere, from Miss World to Underworld.” Explains the entrepreneurial skills of the community and the enormous nature of risk taking.
Rai came into contact with Dawood Ibrahim’s right-hand man, Sharad Shetty, who was also Mangalore Bunt’s partner in the 1990s. Sharad Shetty handled the affairs of Company D from Dubai and was in charge of arranging cricket matches and the betting business. He sheltered Rai in Dubai and cared for him.
Sharad Shetty was expelled in the early 2000s in Dubai and Rai fled the Gulf. Rai was accused of mocking Shetty who had given her refuge in her difficult times.
Muthappa Rai participated in a pitched battle with another Sridhar gangster in the 1990s in Bangalore. There was an attempt on Sridhar’s life, in which his driver died. A “reformed” Sridhar now runs a Kannada tabloid “Agni” and is in the film business.
Rai, who was wanted in several cases, was brought back to India from the United Arab Emirates in the early 2000s and was forced to spend a few months in central prison. Subsequently, he was acquitted of all charges.
A free man, Rai moved to a fortress like a mansion on the outskirts of Bangalore, controlling the levers of the underworld from there. For the past 15 years, he also played the role of a Kannada activist by launching a set called “Jaya Karnataka”. Organization was a regular feature of regular protests in the city. Many of its activists were extorted for a short time.
Rai used to claim that he had assisted the India Research & Analysis Wing (R&AW) external espionage agency in Afghanistan and was therefore given a safe passage back home.
A few months ago, in publicizing his debilitating health, Rai had said that he was a patriot and that he had served the interests of India abroad. Twice married, Rai leaves a wife and two children.
According to some of his close associates, he leaves behind property worth several hundred million rupees throughout Karnataka. Some senior police officers in Karnataka argue that most of the stories about Muthappa Rai are exaggerated and that he was just a land grab wearing the mask of an activist or sophisticated man.
As the organized mafia is almost dead in Bangalore, perhaps Muthappa Rai was the last to rule the underworld in the IT city of India.
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