Karnataka: Real estate entrepreneur and former underworld don Muthappa Rai dies at 68

BENGALURU: Real estate entrepreneur and former underworld don Muthappa Rai died in a private hospital here in the early hours of Friday after a battle with cancer. He was 68. Rai is survived by his second wife and two sons.
Rai was diagnosed with cancer in 2018 and had undergone treatment at various hospitals around the country. He was recently admitted at Manipal Hospitals, Old Airport Road.
“After a prolonged illness and hospitalization Muthappa Rai breathed his last at 1.43 am,” a Manipal Hospitals spokesperson said on Friday morning,
Following speculation over his health, Rai in January this year announced that he had been diagnosed with brain cancer but was surviving on sheer will power.
He had also announced that he had resigned as president of Jaya Karnataka, of which he was the founder president. Rai’s supporters took his body in a procession to his farmhouse in Bidadi, Ramanagara, where he will be laid to rest.
Rai was elected unopposed as president of the Karnataka Athletics Association in November 2018 and he resigned January this year citing his deteriorating health. Besides owning race horses, he also promoted kabaddi and volleyball tournaments.
Born in Puttur, Muthappa Rai worked as a clerk in a bank in Mangaluru where he made his mark among rowdies. Transferred to Bengaluru, he quit his job and plunged into illegal activities full time. He took on some established names in Bengaluru underworld in late 1980s and early 1990s. He was allegedly involved in extortion and murders.
As cases against him started piling up, he fled to Dubai by forging documents. Following an Interpol alert, Rai was extradited to Bengaluru in 2002. He spent a few months in jail and rivals opened fire at once when he was being taken to court. He was acquitted of all criminal charges.
Soon after his release, he started Jaya Karnataka, a Kannada organisation and started dabbling in real estate. He often claimed that he was a patriot who had helped Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) in Afghanistan.
He was recently questioned in his farmhouse in connection with a double murder case in which another underworld don Ravi Pujari, who was extradited to India earlier this year, is an accused.