M. P. Jayaraj

M.P.Jayaraj
Born 1946
Banglore, Thigallarapete
Died 21 November 1989
Occupation Gangster

M. P. Jayaraj (1946–1989) was from a poor family background, belonging to Ganiga caste. He was brought into forefront of Bangalore underworld by M. D. Nataraj, the then son-in-law of the Chief Minister of Karnataka Devaraj Urs.[1] Legend has it that Devaraj Urs was so impressed from the selection of his son-in-law, that the only question he asked him was what caste he belonged to and when he got the answer, Jayaraj was made president of the "Indira Brigade" – the youth wing of Congress party.

Political and underworld career

During the 1970s, the politics in Karnataka was undergoing an immense change, the backward classes were emerging to the forefront in all the spheres of life and so was in politics led by Devaraj Urs. Devaraj Urs was a great visionary and helped the backward classes and dalits through his government programmes and as always there was opposition to these programmes by the forward caste people. To quell this opposition for the upliftment of poor and backward classes, Mr Devaraj Urs used both legal and illegal means, and one of the illegal means was the use of the underworld to quell the protesters and create fear in them.

M. P. Jayaraj ruled the Bangalore underworld throughout the 1970s under the patronage of M. D. Nataraj, but after he was sentenced for 10 years in jail for assaulting a person called Thigallarapete Gopi in court premises, his hold on the underworld began to loosen, while he was in jail Devaraj Urs died, when he came out of it Bangalore was taken over by the new dons Kotwal Ramachandra and Oil Kumar. In the ensuing struggle to reign over Bangalore, Kothwal Ramachandra was bumped off by Jayaraj by giving support to Agni Shridhar, Varadharaja Nayak and Bacchan. Death of Kotwal Ramachandra is very well depicted in Kannada movie Aa Dinagalu. Jayaraj was immensely popular with people and ran a news paper "Ghareebi Hatao" targeting Janata Dal politicians and police. Because of his close relations with Congress party, he had to face the wrath of Janata Dal who were in power in mid-1980s. He was also not in good relations with police as he openly blasted them on Rasheed Murder Case[2] due to which Banglore police requested Muthappa Rai to kill Jayraj.

Plan for murder

When there was a fight between M.P. Jayraj's nephew and Cottonpete Pushpa and Bekkinakannu Rajendra who were the local goons of M.P. Jayraj, he supported his nephew and the goons were sent to jail. When Jayraj understood that these goons will no longer work for him, he planned to kill them by poisoning their food in jail. As Cottonpete Pushpa, Bekkinakannu Rajendra and Srirampura Kitty learnt that the food is poisoned there was a split in the gang. After their release from prison, Jayraj sent some of his men to kill Srirampura Kitty. Balrama, a local goon of Jayraj, attacked Kitty's wife when Kitty was not at home.

The three- Cottonpete Pushpa, Bekkina Kannu Rajendra and Srirampura Kitty began planning the murder of Jayraj. On the other hand most of the Bangalore police were sent to jail following the CBI's investigation on Rasheed Murder Case[2][3] for which Jayraj is said to have supported and is considered the mastermind behind the imprisonment of the police, following which, the Banglore police requested Muthappa Rai to kill Jayraj. Cottonpete Pushpa, Bekkinakannu Rajendra, Srirampura Kitty met Muthappa Rai to ask him to arrange for protection from Jayraj some place other than Banglore. Muttapa Rai sent them to his native Puttur. In Puthoor Muthappa Rai joined Cottonpete Pushpa, Bekkinakannu Rajendra, Srirampura Kitty and some other rowdies to kill Jayraj.

During the first attack on Jayraj, Cottonpete Pushpa, Bekkinakannu Rajendra, Srirampura Kitty and 12 of their men attacked as per the plan of Muthappa Rai using muchets. But Jayraj single handendly fought with all of them and managed to escape into a police station. He was later admitted to a hospital in Banglore. He was later shifted to Mysore K.R. hospital.

It is a well known fact that he was a professional fighter and had a strong physique. People feared taking him on from front. He survived several attacks on his life and this could not be digested easily by the aspiring dons. A plot was finally made to hire sharp-shooters from Mumbai and kill him in the hospital. But Don Jayraj and gangster Mysore Ganesh threw bombs at the shooters and escaped in the second attempt. An aspiring-to-be Don decided to take up the task to himself. In 1989 the Janata Dal government had to resign over phone tapping charges and mid-term elections were announced. Jayaraj was in Mysore Prison at that time and he was advised to contest the elections by his lawyers. He applied for bail and it was granted till the last day for election campaign. When he was denied a ticket by his own party, he decided to contest as an Independent Candidate from Jayanagar constituency. His symbol was a Tiger and he got actively involved in canvassing addressing huge public rallies. He visited the Siddapura police station daily and signed for his presence in the city. Jayaraj addressed his last big public rally on 20 November 1989 at the municipal grounds near Wilson garden, a day before he was killed. On 21 November 1989, at around 7.20 am his car was attacked, bullets were fired at him from a LG rifle and he was killed in his car along with his lawyer. Jayaraj had the support of people and he was confident of winning the elections. The use of guns for the first time in Bangalore by another emerging criminal Muthappa Rai signalled the end of both Jayaraj and Oil Kumar.

References

  1. ↑ Agni Sreedhar. Chapter 1
  2. 1 2 "IPS officer, six others acquitted in murder case". The Hindu. 2 Jul 2002. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
  3. ↑ "THE CHILLING MURDER OF LAWYER RASHID". talkmag.in. 30 November 2012. Retrieved 23 August 2015.

Bibliography

External links

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