If you thought Jaguar, Mercedes, and BMW solely referred to high-end vehicles, you will have by no means heard of Santro Ravi — a human trafficker whose code names for girls of varied nationalities, modelled on totally different sorts of automobiles, has left the authorities in a daze.
An expose by former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy has put Santro Ravi on Page 1 of newspapers amid a verbal battle between the JDS and the BJP.
In one more explosive allegation towards Ravi, the JDS chief claimed that Santro Ravi had written a protecting letter addressed to the Rajarajeshwari Nagar Police Station in Bengaluru claiming to be an lively employee of the BJP.
THE ALLEGATION
Kumaraswamy elaborated {that a} complainant by the title of Jagdish had filed a case towards Santro Ravi on the RR Nagar police station alleging a cash switch fraud. Ravi, in return, wrote a scathing letter to the police, flaunting his political affiliations. Ravi additionally bragged about how he may switch cops and even named just a few of them on this protecting letter, the previous chief minister stated, studying the alleged letter in his possession.
“I have worked as a BJP worker for three-four years. I have associations with MLAs and ministers of our party. So I have transferred many officers,” stated Kumaraswamy, quoting Santro Ravi from the alleged letter.
SANTRO RAVI’S RISE
A supply within the police, whereas talking to News18 on the situation of anonymity, stated: “We have seen him hobnobbing with top politicians and ministers across political parties in the last decade. Ravi had become very powerful as a fixer in the government. Though his illegal operations were largely out of Mysuru, he would use the politicians to get himself off the hook when a police case was filed against him. He would also supply women to politicians, industrialists and high-profile customers and then keep them in his books for future use.”
Over the years, Ravi started to step up his recreation by “honey trapping” or blackmailing his high-profile shoppers to get his work executed, together with switch of cops.
A senior BJP minister stated leaders corresponding to Kumaraswamy had been elevating such pointless points to divert consideration. “He is not clean as a whistle and clearly has things to hide. But one should not forget that if you spit in the air, it will hit your face,” the minister warned.
PURE POLITICAL PUFF, SAY PUNDITS
A serious political slugfest is now afoot in Karnataka. However, political pundits reply with a agency ‘no’ when requested if it’ll have any political impression at a time when the state is heading in direction of elections.
Political analyst Sandeep Shastri believes that political events attempt to use such strategies as elections close to. “I think the voter in Karnataka has a better understanding of what factors make him vote in favour of a particular party. I don’t think they will be swayed by such episodes. Political parties may use these to remain in the headlines, but as you say in journalism, the voter will read the fine print. They will read between the lines,” Shastri informed News18.
FROM MERCEDES TO JAGUAR, SANTRO RAVI’S ILLEGAL OPERATION
Originally from Karnataka’s Mandya district, KS Manjunath alias Santro Ravi was the son of a former official within the state excise division. Ravi, the police say, has been actively working as a human trafficker since 1995. A senior official stated his first brush with the legislation was in 1988 when he’s stated to have forcibly kidnapped a minor lady, raped her, and tried to cowl it up by taking her to Dharmasthala to marry her. He was arrested just a few days later, however escaped from the Mysuru-based KR hospital, feigning sickness.
After remaining underground, Manjunath — who had not but bought the title Santro Ravi — went round promising ladies jobs after which pushing them into human trafficking.
The then newly launched Santro automobile was his provider from which he would conduct his unlawful trafficking enterprise and shortly Manjunath got here to be often called ‘Santro Ravi’.
“Around the year 2000, the car Santro had become very popular and Manjunath owned one. It was literally his mobile office and all the dealings would take place in it,” revealed SK Umesh, a senior retired ACP who had tracked Ravi’s human trafficking ring and filed circumstances towards him.
“The Santro car was new in the market and he drove it with pride. He would drive it really fast and escape from the police when they would reach any location for a raid,” Umesh informed News18.
Ravi’s operations slowly shifted from Mysuru to Bengaluru metropolis and he started supplying ladies from numerous different states and nations for personal events, News18 learnt.
As a part of his modus operandi, he gave code phrases to the nations from the place the ladies belonged, defined Umesh. “He would call women from Kazakhstan Mercedes Benz as they were tall and slender. Those from Malaysia and Singapore were called Audis. He had separate terms like Jaguars and BMW for those he bought in Bangladesh and the Northeast,” he stated.
Umesh stated Ravi’s community was highly effective and ran deep. In the previous 5 to six years, he turned fully ‘un-touchable’ to the police pressure as nicely, say officers.
Several circumstances had been registered towards Santro Ravi between 2010 and 2014 for working a prostitution racket, stated officers of the Odanadi Seva Samsthe, a Mysuru-based NGO working to expose such unlawful trafficking rings.
“Ravi had links with several rowdy gangsters in Bengaluru and was very well connected. He would get prior information that the police were going to raid his operation and would go underground — only to resurface with a new powerful connection,” the officer added.
Recollecting an incident from 2005, Umesh spoke about Ravi getting arrested in Mysuru for human trafficking. “He was arrested at night and there was enough evidence against him. However, by morning, things changed and allegations were made against the local inspector for having detained Ravi at night,” he stated.
Umesh added: “The police officer was suspended because Ravi had pulled strings to make it look like the police had violated the law. It was argued why Ravi was not picked up in the day and his rights had been violated. Such was his pull.”
‘POLITICALLY INFLUENTIAL’ RAVI?
Those who’ve come shut to seeing how Ravi operates say his interactions with ministers started to improve in the previous few years. He can be seen strolling with distinguished ministers, attending occasions with them and would additionally usually put up pictures with them.
“He would use these photographs to show how powerful he was and use it to threaten to transfer police officers,” stated the retired cop.
Some of those images had been lately launched on social media by the Opposition, placing the ruling BJP in a spot. Ravi’s images and hyperlinks with ministers from the Basavaraj Bommai cupboard like state training minister BC Nagesh, state house minister Araga Jnanendra, well being minister DK Sudhakar, and even Bommai’s son Bharath, had been launched by Kumaraswamy.
Bommai, nevertheless, rubbished the images as ‘doctored’.
Apart from pictures, Kumaraswamy additionally launched an audio purportedly of a dialog between a police officer looking for a switch and Ravi. In the audio, Ravi purportedly says: “Even the chief minister calls me sir. You are just a deputy superintendent. The word sir is what should come out of your mouth while addressing me.” The supply of the audio will not be recognized and the police are investigating the identical.
On an expose spree, Kumaraswamy additionally launched a video purportedly displaying Ravi speaking to minister for cooperation ST Somashekhar. The JDS chief alleged that Ravi, who’s a rape accused and has a number of circumstances of human trafficking towards him, equipped ladies to the ‘Mumbai Team’ — the group of Congress turncoat MLAs who had been holed up in a five-star lodge in Mumbai in the course of the peak of the Karnataka political disaster in 2019.
Somashekhar hit again at Kumaraswamy, claiming he was making such statements as he was afraid of dropping the upcoming meeting elections.
Police officers who’re within the scorching pursuit of Ravi consider that the accused could also be in possession of audio and intercourse tapes involving influential individuals and use it to acquire political leverage. “He has used it before to extort top businessmen, why will he stop there?” requested a police official on situation of anonymity.
TRACE, TRACK AND ARREST RAVI
The Karnataka police have launched a manhunt to observe and arrest Ravi. A working concept as revealed by a police supply has been that he may have fled to the Andamans. A police workforce has been despatched there to discover him.
A lookout round has been issued towards Ravi who’s an accused in a rape and atrocity case to stop him from escaping the nation, stated Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Alok Kumar who is anticipated to be stationed in Mysuru till Ravi falls into the police web.
Four particular groups of police have been shaped and dispatched to locations corresponding to Chamrajanagara, Mysuru rural, Mandya, Ramanagaram, Bengaluru rural, and metropolis limits to hint the accused. Having frozen his financial institution accounts and likewise raided his house in Rajarajeshwari nagar, the police have begun tracing his digital footprint to observe his actions.
DGP SOOD DETAINED RAVI IN 2005
Karnataka DGP Praveen Sood, whereas talking to News18, stated there are 21 pending circumstances towards Ravi in Karnataka and the hunt for him is in full swing.
“We have issued a lookout notice for him,” Sood stated, recalling how he had additionally booked Ravi when he was the Mysore police commissioner in 2005.
“He was a woman trafficker and would solicit them, trap them and even rape them. There were a lot of cases against him, most of which were for exploiting women and fraud. As the commissioner of Mysore, I had booked him under the Goonda Act on July 4, 2005, for one year,” the highest cop stated.
THE RECENT CASE
The current case which has the Karnataka police is in search of him is after an inside investigation of the police revealed that Praveen, an inspector hooked up to the Cottonpete Police Station, had allegedly colluded with Ravi to file a false case of dacoity towards two ladies. A case was filed towards a non-existent finance firm owned by Ravi and each ladies had been despatched to 20 days judicial custody in Bengaluru’s central jail.
One of the ladies, on being launched from jail, informed the police that she was Ravi’s spouse. She stated he had pressured himself on her and later started residing along with her. She later alleged that Ravi would take objectionable movies and images to blackmail her. She added that he had threatened to file a false case towards her if he didn’t cooperate and that landed her in jail.
Read all of the Latest India News right here
