Two alleged associates of ‘Khali’ Yogish arrested in Mangaluru

Two alleged associates of ‘Khali’ Yogish arrested in Mangaluru

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, july 31, 2024: The Central Crime Branch police on Tuesday arrested two alleged associates of underworld operative ‘Khali’ Yogish, accused of being involved in an extortion bid of a city merchant.

Police Commissioner Anupam Agrawal gave the names of the arrested as Mohammed Haneef, 40, of Paivalike village in Kasaragod district of Kerala, and Mohammed Rafiq, 36, of Mudipu in Bantwal taluk of Dakshina Kannada.

Mr. Agrawal told reporters on Tuesday that 10 days ago, the owner of a cloth store in the Central Market area received a call reportedly from underworld operative ‘Khali’ Yogish, demanding a ransom of ₹50 lakh. A case was registered in the Mangaluru North police station and the Central Crime Branch (CCB) was asked to investigate it.

On a tip-off, a CCB team, led by Assistant Commissioner of Police Geeta Kulkarni and Inspector Shyam Sundar, intercepted a vehicle on Falnir Road on Tuesday morning and apprehended the two accused.

Their questioning has so far revealed that ‘Khali’ Yogish had assigned the task of blackmailing the cloth merchant to the two accused. Haneef was allegedly in constant touch with ‘Khali’ Yogish in this regard and the latter had been using different groups to execute his extortion bids, the Police Commissioner added.

The investigation also revealed that the two accused had also taken a contract from ‘Khali’ Yogish to murder a merchant from Karkala in Udupi district. The Karkala-based merchant had recently filed a complaint with the Karkala police.

‘Khali’ Yogish had allegedly paid an advance to the two accused persons to carry out the murder. The two accused had purchased a pistol from Agra and a revolver from Madikeri, Mr. Agrawal said.

The police recovered the pistol, the revolver, 12 bullets, 42 grams of synthetic narcotic drug MDMA, a car, three mobile phones, and a digital weighing machine from the accused.

Haneef is accused in 14 criminal cases, including shoot-out incidents at the Sanjeev Shetty cloth showroom in Mangaluru, at Rajdhani Jewellery store in Puttur and at the house of a PWD contractor in Kasaragod district of Kerala. Rafiq is accused in nine criminal cases reported in Dakshina Kannada and Kasaragod districts, Mr. Agrawal said. Efforts are on to find other persons allegedly associated with the accused, he added.

The Commissioner praised the CCB team for quickly apprehending the accused who were trying to create an atmosphere of threat in the city.