A senior functionary of the right wing Hindu group,the Sri Rama Sene,has been arrested by the Mangalore police for connections to the underworld,once again highlighting the criminal base of the outfit and possibly throwing new light on several recent crimes in Mangalore,including the pub attack last January. On Monday,the Mangalore police arrested Prasad Attavar,the Mangalore district convener of the Sene,for being a financial conduit and operations man for the underworld operative and extortionist Ravi Poojary. They stumbled upon evidence of telephonic links between them during investigations into underworld activities in Mangalore,senior police officials said. Police have described Attavar as a close associate of the foreign-based Poojary (see box). Attavar was earlier arrested by the Mangalore police for orchestrating the assault on women at Amnesia in Mangalore,claiming it was intended to protect Indian culture. He was later released on bail. The arrest of Attavar has exposed important underworld links. It could throw a different light on many criminal cases in Mangalore including the murder of advocate Naushad Kasim, said Mangalore SP Dr A Subramanyeswara Rao. The SP said the police would like to re-examine all underworld and Sri Rama Sene related cases in the region to ascertain Attavars role. Initially,the pub attack too was believed to be a part of the Bannanje Raja-Ravi Poojary turf war,into which the pub owners had been dragged. Attavar is allegedly the man who alerted local media of a planned attack. Attavar is not the first criminal element associated with the Sri Rama Sene. Nagaraj Jambagi,a 25-year-old criminal gang leader and former associate of the Sri Rama Sena founder Pramod Mutalik,hailing from the north Karnataka district of Bagalkot,was the main accused in the May 10,2008 bomb blast in a Hubli court,triggered ahead of the hearing of a case against SIMI activists. Jambagi was killed last year in a prison brawl.
