Bannanje Raja meets his sick mother
Fugitive don spares time with his family amidst tight police security
Udupi, July 09: Underworld fugitive don Bannanje Raja, who has been in Belagavi jail for the last four years, met his sick mother at his home at Sasithota of Katapadi on Monday following the permission from the Principal District and Sessions Court and spent around 9 hours from morning to evening with his family amidst tight police security.
Bannanje Raja who came from Belagavi on Sunday and stayed in the Udupi city police station lock-up, was taken to his home at Sasithota on Monday at 9 am under the tight police security led by Udupi circle inspector Manjunath and allowed him to stay with his 80-year-old sick mother Vilasini.
During his visit, Raja’s father 81-year-old M Sundar, brother Arun and his wife, children, wife Vasanti and two children of another brother who died a few years ago, and Raja’s wife Sonam and his children who came from Bengaluru were present at the house. Mother of Bannanje Raja was a retired teacher, while his father was a retired revenue inspector.
When Arun brought breakfast, police verified it and allowed him to take it inside the house. For lunch, the family members prepared chicken curry, roti and fish dishes for Bannanje Raja, family sources said.
On Monday morning, SP Lakshman Nimbaragi, ASP Kumarachandra and Udupi DySP Kumaraswamy visited the house of Bannanje Raja and inspected it.
Bannanje Raja, who went underground in 2015, was arrested in Morocco in South Africa and brought him to Bengaluru. Being the accused in several cases including a murder in Karwar, shoot-out in Airodi Jewellers in Udupi and others, he was in Belagavi jail for the last four years.
Night stay in lock-up
The police brought Bannanje Raja from his home of Kalmadi to the city police station at 6 pm and kept him in the lock-up and he would spend his night in the lock-up.
Even in the lock-up, the police set up three CCTV cameras to keep a vigil on his movements. After conducting medical check up on him at the district hospital, he would be taken to the Belagavi jail with tight police security, police sources said.
House was under CCTV surveillance
From Malpe-Udupi main road, tight police security was deployed till his house, which is around 300 mts from the main road. DAR police were deployed on the main road and the interior road leading to his house. Apart from this, barricades were put up around 100 mts away from his house and in front of his house. Four CCTV cameras were installed inside and outside the house. Police security was beefed up around his house. No one including his relatives, neighbours and media persons was allowed inside the house.
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Chhattisgarh coal levy scam: Rs 4 crore assets of suspended IAS officer attached
Raipur (PTI): The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has attached properties of Rs 4 crore belonging to suspended IAS officer Sameer Vishnoi, an accused in a coal levy scam, for allegedly amassing assets beyond his known sources of income, officials said.
The EOW had registered a disproportionate assets case against Vishnoi in July 2024, an official release said on Saturday.
During the investigation, the agency identified nine immovable properties, valued at around Rs 4 crore, allegedly acquired through illicit means in the names of Vishnoi’s family members and associated firms, it said.
“An application seeking attachment of these properties was filed before the Special Court under the Prevention of Corruption Act in Raipur. Following a hearing on April 17, the court ordered attachment of all such properties,” the statement said.
Accordingly, the Anti-Corruption Bureau/Economic Offences Wing attached the properties. The attached properties cannot be sold or transferred, it said.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had earlier provisionally attached five immovable properties linked to Vishnoi in connection with the coal levy scam, it added.
Proceedings are also underway in cases involving other public servants, including action taken in September last year against properties linked to Saumya Chaurasia, who was deputy secretary in the chief minister’s office during the Congress government, the statement said.
Vishnoi, a 2009-batch Indian Administrative Service officer, was first arrested in 2022 by the ED in connection with the alleged coal levy scam. He was among several accused who were granted bail last year by the Supreme Court.
The case refers to an alleged Rs 540 crore racket between July 2020 and June 2022, when an illegal levy of Rs 25 per tonne was being extorted by a cartel involving senior bureaucrats, businessmen, politicians and middlemen for every tonne of coal transported in the state.
