BANGALORE: The members of the Dandupalya gang, who have murdered at least 80 people in Karnataka, were used as contract killers in several cases. Even politicians used to get their enemies eliminated with the Dandupalya gang’s help. Eleven members of the gang recently got death penalty.
The gang used to get Rs 1,000-Rs 2,000 for each killing. Apart from that, they used to take away the jewellery and the money from the victims.
The gang had killed a sub-inspector in Andhra Pradesh, after getting the contract from a police constable.
Prabhakar Raju, the SI of Ralla Budagur Police Station in Chittoor district was killed while he was on his way to the police station on his two-wheeler on August 17, 1995. Raju was returning after security duty at a small town in Chittoor district where a political party had organised a protest. He was attacked and killed by the Dandupalya gang.
The role of the gang came to light, when Chalapathi, then the inspector of Vijayanagar, interrogated the accused, Chikka Muniyappa, Hanuma alias Dodda Hanuma, Chinnappa, Munikrishna and Venkataramana, who were arrested by him in murder cases in Bangalore and other parts of the state. The head constable of Ralla Budagur station, K Parashurama, had hired the gang members.
Other cases
The investigating officers suspect that the gang was used as contract killers in the double murder of a man and sister in Malleshwaram. Omprakash (20) and Komala (18), the children of one Narasimhaiah, were killed in the wee hours of September 4, 1999. Narasimhaiah’s father was the ex-MLA of Gowribidanur and investigations revealed that political rivalry was behind the double murder. The Dandupalya gang was given the contract to kill the siblings by one Srirama of Dandupalya. Srirama could never be arrested by the local police.
Police suspect that the double murder of Prabhakar V Joshi and his brother, Neelakanta V Joshi, at their house at Durgabail in Hubli on March 12, 2000 was also contract killing by the gang.
The murder of Dr Aroor Bhaskar Rao in Mangalore in 2000 is suspected to be the handiwork of the Dandupalya gang.