Gangs of Bengaluru: Recent killings again reveal the underbelly of crime in the city

In the latest of high-profile gangland murders, a south Bengaluru gangster, Mahesh N alias Siddapura Mahesh, 33, was hacked to death in public view barely 15 minutes after he was released from the central prison on the night of August 4.

Police sources suggest the involvement of nearly 50 people in the incident—with attackers posted at multiple junctions between the prison, located at the fringe of the southeast police zone of Bengaluru, and along his travel route to the city.

Two weeks later, on August 18, Wilson Garden Naga alias J Nagaraja, 35, a gangster who came under the spotlight ahead of the Karnataka Assembly elections after he was spotted visiting a BJP minister’s home, surrendered before a court along with his associate and gangster V Mohan alias Double Meter Mohan, 32.

The surrender of 10 members of the Wilson Garden Naga gang (Grace Walter, Siddapura Sunil, Pradeep D, Kannan R and others) had earlier been “arranged” on August 11, a week after the murder of Mahesh, according to police sources.

Mahesh’s murder is thought to be a consequence of a rivalry between him and Wilson Garden Naga that arose following the December 8, 2020, murder at a farm house in a village at Hiresave, near Hassan, of a long-time Bengaluru gangster Lingaraju alias Shantinagar Linga, 45, who initiated the former into the gangland.

In 2020 Shanthinagar Linga was holed up at his farmhouse during the Covid crisis when Wilson Garden Naga, an associate-turned-rival, allegedly tracked him down. A gang of 14 people allegedly hacked Lingaraju to death while he was sleeping in the farmhouse.

The “deceased Lingaraju and accused No.3 Nagaraj @ Naga are rowdy-sheeters and there is an enmity between them in respect of the real estate business in Bengaluru and due to Covid 19, the deceased Lingaraju came to Kamaravalli Village of Channarayapatna taluk and started to reside in the village,” a Hassan court noted while acquitting Naga, his associate Double Meter Mohan and 14 others on May 12, 2022, in the murder case.

The court acquitted all the accused as there was no witness to the crime.

According to police sources, Mahesh, who was allegedly murdered by the Wilson Garden Naga gang on August 4, had upon himself the mantle of avenging the death of his mentor Shanthinagar Linga and went around bragging that he would kill Naga one day.

“Linga, Naga, Mohan, Silent Sunil were all part of the same gang at one point of time. They worked together to carry out some murders. Siddapura Mahesh was part of the group and was promoted by Linga. After Linga’s murder, there was a lot of loose talk by Mahesh about Naga. As a result, Naga began suspecting that Mahesh was organising an attack on him and he made his own plans to pre-empt an attack,” a police source said.

Political patronage for murderers:

Between the Shantinagar Linga murder (December 2020) and the Mahesh murder (August 4, 2023) there were two other murders directly linked to the rivalry between Naga and Mahesh.

In July 2021, a gang of over a dozen people hacked to death Madan N, 44, a financier and real estate dealer with alleged links to Wilson Garden Naga. The financier was hacked to death around 11.45 am near the Banashankari metro station.

The Bengaluru police named Mahesh as the main conspirator and 16 more people as the other accused in the murder case. After Mahesh was arrested, he was alleged to have attempted to attack police, resulting in the police firing at his legs. A case was then registered at the Talaghattapura station on the outskirts of Bengaluru.

In a subsequent murder also linked to the Wilson Garden Naga-Mahesh rivalry, in May 2022, three people allegedly hacked to death Sudeep R, 25, near the Hiresave village in the Hassan region. Sudeep was one of the accused in the Linga murder case. He is alleged to have disclosed Linga’s location to the Wilson Garden Naga gang. Mahesh’s gang was linked to the Sudeep murder with revenge killing as the motive again, police sources said.

“The series of murders that have occurred in this rivalry from south Bengaluru has had a distinguishing feature. Apart from hacking the body with swords, the gangsters also smash the head of the victims with a hammer to break the skull,” said a police source.

“All the persons who have now been arrested (after surrender) for the Mahesh murder from the Naga gang were accused in the Linga murder case in 2020. Such arrests (surrenders) usually occur with prompting from political forces. Naga is linked to 10 murders and enjoys the patronage of 20 of the 28 Bengaluru MLAs, cutting across party lines,” the police source added.

In the scheme of things, the murdered Siddapura Mahesh was an upstart compared to Naga. “He (Mahesh) was trying to emerge as a big player. He offered to back a sitting MLA in south Bengaluru in the 2023 polls but was instead directed to back a new candidate with a criminal record in another constituency—after his rivals opposed his entry into the MLA’s camp. The new candidate lost and Mahesh’s attempt to gain patronage failed,” a source said.

‘Mahesh was scared despite a pretence of bravado’

Police sources also said that Mahesh, who had been married for less than two months when killed, was running scared despite a pretence of bravado. Although he was released on bail in the 2021 Madan murder case in March, he returned to prison soon after when he was issued a warrant with regard to the police encounter case at the time of his arrest in 2021.

The return to prison was an effort to protect himself since he saw himself as being more liable to be attacked if he was outside prison, say police officials. After Mahesh’s death, his mother told the media that her son was “constantly worried that his rivals would get a warrant issued for arrest in some case and plan an attack against him”.

Mahesh was released on the evening of August 4 around 9.15 pm from the central prison after the Bengaluru rural district court granted him bail in the Talaghattapura police firing case. Word about his release was passed on from the prison premises and his murder was organised within two hours of the knowledge of the release, sources said.

Kapila murder on July 11, 2023

A few weeks prior to the murder of Mahesh, on July 11, a gangster, Kapil J alias Kapila, 36, was hacked to death outside a tea shop on a busy street in Banaswadi in east Bengaluru around 8 pm. Kapil was associated with Wilson Garden Naga through the October 2014 murder of the gangster Nakra Babu in Madiwala in southeast Bengaluru. Nakra Babu was an accused in the July 2014 murder of the gangster Kavala alias Vijay Kumar in Hosur in Tamil Nadu. Naga and Kapil are among 28 associates of Kavala accused in the 2014 killing.

There have been suggestions of links between the Mahesh murder and the July 11 murder of Kapila after police arrested Shankar, brother of Palla Ravi, an accused imprisoned in connection with another high-profile gangland murder in Bengaluru (of Babli Joseph in a bank in July 2021). Police have denied any links.

“There was a direct dispute on a real estate deal in the Vyalikaval Housing Co-operative between Kapil and one of the accused, Puneeth Kumar. The local police had intervened in the issue two weeks before the incident (the July 11 murder) and issued a warning to the two. The murder was a fallout of the local dispute,” a Bengaluru Central Crime Branch official said.

“There are power struggles between the gangs but there are no political connections to these murders. There are no connections between the incidents. These are local gang rivalries playing out,” said new Bengaluru police commissioner B Dayananda.

Quid pro quo relationship with MLAs

According to multiple police officers, the gangsters at the top of the pyramid enjoy a quid pro quo relationship with many MLAs in Bengaluru. “The gangsters have a hold on the slums where the mass of voters are located in every constituency. The politicians want the votes so they offer protection to the big gangsters and access to contracts for garbage collection, liquor vending, construction activities, gambling and betting. This is a parallel system that is working in the city,” a police officer said.

With large numbers of unemployed youths in the poorer areas of the city, there is a steady supply of manpower for the gangs. Some of the big gangsters have over 1,000 men in their gangs, a police official said. “With the proliferation of mobile phones and social media, there is a lot of glorification of gangsters. Sometimes crimes and attacks are carried out by youths for gaining street cred among gangs,” said a police officer in the Bengaluru Central Crime Branch.

Some social media channels that cover Bengaluru gangland affairs have nearly a lakh subscribers. Earlier this year, Mahesh’s release from prison was heralded by his supporters with a social media video that projected him as a don.

Punishments for acting against gangsters

With postings to all police stations in Bengaluru, especially those of inspectors, becoming largely political affairs (linked to the diktat of local MLAs and the individual purchasing power of policemen), the police hierarchy and discipline structures have no say in appointments.

“It is often open season for gangsters since the police stations will invariably be under the thumb of the MLA,” say veteran police officials familiar with the situation.

“Nothing grows without shelter and nurturing and this is the truth about the gangland as well. There is nurturing that is happening, but it is not something we can speak freely about,” said a police officer dealing with organised crime in Bengaluru.

Recent postings of police inspectors and deputy superintendents, under the Congress government, have been fraught with controversy. Last month the police headquarters had to withhold transfer orders for 69 jurisdictions following disputes among MLAs, ministers and the chief minister’s office.

Last year, the then Bengaluru police commissioner suspended an inspector in the west police zone for failing to register an extortion case against a gangster operating from a prison. The officer has been posted back to the city in recent transfers.

There are also several instances of officers being suspended for taking up cases against gangsters who enjoy political patronage, say sources who have dealt with organised crime.

There are also complaints within the police department of selective use of strong laws like the Karnataka Control of Organised Crime Act against gangsters and extrajudicial methods like firing at the legs of dangerous offenders.

Polls and gangsters

Ahead of the Assembly polls in May, several known gangsters in Bengaluru attempted to join politics. Among them was Sunil Kumar alias Silent Sunil, 41, a key gangland figure who was attempting to contest the elections on the BJP ticket. He is now reported to have interests in civic contracts and other overtly legitimate activities.

Sunil was once considered an associate of Wilson Garden Naga and Double Meter Mohan. The trio were jointly accused along with several other gangsters in 2017 in a case related to an attempt to shoot down a realtor and politician.
In the course of cases brought in 2017 against him, Sunil was shown by the police as “the head of an organised crime syndicate”.

Sunil was also closely associated with Shantinagar Lingaraju. There were rumours of a fallout between Sunil and Naga after the Linga murder, but a social media picture of Naga (and Mohan) with Sunil scotched them in January 2023, police sources said.

With the Bengaluru civic polls around the corner, and a new government in power in the state, there seem to be efforts by gangsters to establish and consolidate their strangleholds in the city. Many people linked to the gangland are also expected to contest the civic polls with the open or tacit support of political parties, as part of efforts to gain political legitimacy that can provide a cover and the illusion of being distanced from criminal activities.