Convicted gangster Bannanje Raja makes extortion call from inside Hindalga jail in Belagavi
The Hindu
Bannanje Raja was extradited to India from Morocco in 2015 for his alleged involvement in the murder of businessman R.N. Nayak in Ankola in Uttara Kannada district in 2013. Raja and other accused were sentenced to life imprisonment by a sessions court in Belagavi in 2022. He is serving his term in Hindalga jail.
Convicted gangster Bannanje Raja, aka Rajesh Kumar, allegedly made a threat call from inside Hindalga jail in Belagavi to extort money. The Prison Department is now probing the matter.
Bannanje Raja was extradited to India from Morocco in 2015 for his alleged involvement in the murder of businessman R.N. Nayak in Ankola in Uttara Kannada district in 2013. Raja and other accused were sentenced to life imprisonment by a sessions court in Belagavi in 2022. He is serving his term in Hindalga jail.
According to sources in the Prison Department, after being alerted about the call, the Superintendent Police and the Assistant Superintendent of Police, Hindalga jail searched his barrack for the mobile phone. Police wore body cameras during the search. Though the police could not find a mobile phone, prison officials are investigating how a phone was smuggled inside the cell and who assisted to bringing the device inside.
On the other hand, upon hearing about the incident, the Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) of Kalaburagi, who is in charge of Hindalga, rushed to the prison to take stock of the situation. This is the first time that an allegation of an extortion call from Hindalga has been made in the five years that Raja has been lodged in the prison.
Sources said, at present, the Central prisons in Belagavi and Bengaluru do not have a full-time Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), which compromises security in the prison. The source added that Raja has now come under surveillance for issuing a threat using a smuggled mobile phone.