It’s run-don-run in Mangalore

Stringent measures adopted by the police had forced the Mangalore underworld to flee the state, a senior police officer here claimed.

Besides the police getting tough, the entry of prominent realtors also stifled the underworld because they preferred legal and ethical transactions to cheating the government on stamp duty.
Mangalore had been a fertile recruiting ground for Mumbai-based underworld gangs for the past 35 years.

The district had contributed several anti-social elements to the underworld. Some of them, who spread their networks across the seas, even became part of the underworld’s dark folklore.

“We stepped up our efforts with the aim of finishing off this menace. We targeted underworld elements across the Western range and broke the backbone of their organisational structure,” inspector general of police Gopal B Hosur said.

The police were determined to stifle the underworld by snapping all channels that had been financing their activities. Soon, the police started receiving reliable information on underworld elements. The law-and-order department knew that the new recruits were also assigned to terrorist activities.

In March last year, the police netted a big fish, Rashid Malbari, a sharpshooter belonging to the notorious ‘D’ gang.

Soon, society started feeling the results of the police’s unrelenting clean-up efforts. “Extortion calls have almost stopped, and the ones still active are small-time rowdies. They will also be rounded up soon,” superintendent of police A Subramanyeshwara Rao said. 

Incidentally, the police were receiving feelers from underworld elements, requesting clemency in return for their surrender. Several underworld dons had already reformed, Rao said.