Gangster Shintre killed in Belgaum

One of the most notorious contract killers in Belgaum, Praveen Shintre, was reportedly killed in a pre-dawn encounter on Thursday.

One of the most notorious contract killers in Belgaum, Praveen Shintre, was reportedly killed in a pre-dawn encounter on Thursday. He was gunned down at Rajdeep Bungalow in Belgaum, the very place he used as a den to commit a majority of his crimes, including murder and rape.

According to the police, 35-year-old Shintre, nabbed from Udupi a day earlier, was taken to Rajdeep Bungalow for the recovery of a revolver he had used in one of his last crimes —the murder and rape of a housewife and mother of three children on August 10.

After he picked up the revolver from where it was hidden in the bungalow, Shintre, who had 14 cases against him in the city, turned the gun on the police who reportedly pummeled him with bullets from close range.

“The death of Shintre has brought a great sense of relief among the vast majority of people in Belgaum. There is also a section of people who believe that bringing him to book would have resulted in him spilling the names of his benefactors in the police and political circles,” IGP of the northern range of Karnataka Raghavendra Auradkar said.

Anger had been mounting in Belgaum city over the past month, following the discovery of the murder and rape of Sheetal Chougale on August 13 by the Khanapur police in Belgaum district.

Women in particular had risen in anger staging protests and had also observed a bandh on August 31 over the police inaction in tracking down Shintre. According to the police, Shintre was hired to kill Chougale by her husband Ravindranath, a high- profile contractor in the city, after she objected to his extra-marital affair. Shintre was paid Rs 4 lakh for the murder, police said.

Shintre has also been linked to the murder of a Samajwadi Party worker Razia Elahi, on a supari given by her brother-in-law. Shintre was the district president of the Samajwadi Party for some time before his notoriety lead to his removal from the party. As many as four of the six contract killings he has been linked with involved women.