KASARGOD: Gangster Kalia Rafeeq, who made Uppala notorious, was hacked to death in Mangaluru late Tuesday night. He was 38. Police said Rafeeq was going towards Mangaluru when a tipper truck rammed into his car near B C Road in Mangaluru around 11.45 pm. Another car pulled up in front of Rafeeq’s vehicle, and five men from it attacked the gangster, said Kumbla inspector V V Manoj, quoting Ullal police. He was shot at and attacked with machetes. Rafeeq’s accomplices might have been in the car, suspect officers.
Shootout in Uppala
Rafeeq was booked in around 30 cases, including robbery, murder, attempt to murder, collection of protection money and peddling marijuana, but led a life cocking a snook at law. Of late, none of cases against him had reached the trial stage, said police. “I don’t remember he being convicted in any case,” said Manoj. His areas of influence were Kasargod and Dakshina Kannada, and sometimes bigger mobs used Rafeeq’s gang members as hired guns, police said.
In December 2015, Kasargod police arrested him in connection with a shootout with a rival gang in Uppala town. Later, the Collector had invoked the Goonda Act or the Kerala Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act, 2007, against him. When he was in Central Prison, Viyyur in Thrissur, in connection with the shootout, police traced a threatening call to an NRI back to his cell. But after six months in prison, he was out.
Sensational murder
In the night of October 24, 2013, he allegedly shot and hacked to death his former accomplice Muthalib in front of his wife. A special police team arrested him in Ajmer in November.
In 2008, he escaped from the custody of Chikmagalur police when he was being produced in a court in Kasargod in connection with the kidnap and murder of a man in Kaikamba in Uppala. The Mangaluru police re-arrested and released him soon. A few months before he allegedly killed Muthalib, Vittal police had arrested him in connection with peddling marijuana and was released on bail.
Inspector Manoj said Rafeeq might have been killed to avenge the murder of Muthalib. The shootout in Uppala was a manifestation of their rivalry, said police. Muthalib’s cousin ‘Kasai’ Ali was leading the other faction, he said.