M. P. Jayaraj

During the 1970s, the politics in Karnataka was undergoing an immense change, the backward classes were pushed to the forefront in all the spheres of life due to the policies of Devaraj Urs. Devaraj Urs helped the backward classes and dalits through his government programmes. To quell any opposition for the "upliftment" of poor and backward classes, Devaraj Urs used both legal and illegal means, and one of the illegal means was the use of the underworld to quell the protesters and create fear in them.

M. P. Jayaraj ruled the Bangalore underworld throughout the 1970s under the patronage of M. D. Nataraj, but after he was sentenced for 10 years in jail for assaulting a person called Thigallarapete Gopi in court premises, his hold on the underworld began to loosen, while he was in jail Devaraj Urs died, when he came out of it Bangalore was taken over by the new dons Kotwal Ramachandra and Oil Kumar. In the ensuing struggle to reign over Bangalore, Kothwal Ramachandra was bumped off by Jayaraj by giving support to Agni Shridhar, Varadharaja Nayak and Bacchan. Death of Kotwal Ramachandra is very well depicted in Kannada movie Aa Dinagalu. Jayaraj was popular with people. He ran a newspaper "Ghareebi Hatao" targeting Janata Dal politicians and police. He was also not in good relations with police as he openly blasted them on Rasheed Murder Case.[2]

M.P. Jayaraj was later sent to jail in a 307 case. He was attacked in front of the Bengaluru Central Jail (today's Freedom Park) by a group consisting of Pushparaj alias Cottonpete Pushpa, Chakre, Bekkinakannu Rajendra and others. He was able to fight off all of them and he ran into the jail. He later requested to be transferred to Mysore jail for his safety. 15 days later, when he was admitted in the K R hospital, he was once again attacked by a group of sharp shooters. Jayaraj managed to fend off the attackers by hurling bombs at them and he escaped unscathed. In the meantime, his associate, Station Shekar was killed in a police encounter. Jayaraj used his newspaper "Gareebi Hatao" and also his influence to trouble the police in this matter, however the case didn't stand and it failed. Jayaraj later thought of contesting for the MLA elections as an independent candidate from Jayanagara as the Congress party refused him the ticket. He took a bail from the court to contest for the elections and was rallying in his area everyday for the elections. He would visit Siddapura police station everyday to sign. On 21 November 1989, one day before he would go to jail, Jayaraj was returning from Siddapura police station after signing. He was accompanied by his brother M.P. Umesh, Lawyer Vardhamanayya and his associates in his ambassador car. At 7:20AM when his car approached the Lalbagh gate, he was assassinated by Muthappa Rai, Subash Singh Thakur and 10 others. A bullet was fired from the back which led to the driver M.P. Umesh lose control and hit the footpath on the left. As soon as the car stopped, everyone in the car except Jayaraj and Lawyer Vardhamanayya ran away. The assassins surrounded Jayaraj's car and started showering the bullets. Although he used Lawyer Vardhamanayya to shield himself and despite being assisted through a bomb by his associate standing at a distance, Jayaraj failed to escape this time. He was shot dead in the head at 7:20AM while returning to his home from the police station.