Kotwal Ramachandra was a gangster in

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

in the 1970s and 1980s. He covered Bengaluru North and operated in Kodandarampura and Srirampura there. He was a contemporary of rival M. P. Jayaraj. The two had a power struggle over who would rule the

underworld under the crime boss

Oil Kumar Benakanahalli Alappa Shivakumar (1951 – 20 November 1990) (a.k.a. Boot House Kumar, Oil Kumar), was a ganglord and organized crime boss who headed the Bangalore underworld in the 1980s along with other notable figures such as M. P. Jayaraj an ...

. Jayaraj was successful in bumping off Ramachandra with the help of Agni Shridhar, Bachchan and Varadharaja Nayak.

Early life

Ramachandra was from

Shimoga Shimoga, officially Shivamogga, is a city and the district headquarters of Shimoga district in the Karnataka state of India. The city lies on the banks of the Tunga River. Being the gateway for the hilly region of the Western Ghats, the city ...

. He was over six feet tall, and used knives and sickles as his weapons. He was backed by some politicians in his heyday.

Career

Ramachandra was known to carry out random attacks of innocents in public in order to invoke fear that led him to develop more unwanted enemies but alleviate the situations but not his market value as he assumed.

Political links

Ramachandra gained access to political circles when he started working as driver and body guard to then Chief Minister of

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

D. Devaraj Urs Devaraj Devaraj Arasu (20 August 1915 – 6 June 1982) was an Indian politician who served two terms as the Chief Minister of Karnataka (1972–77, 1978–80). He is also the longest serving List of chief ministers of Karnataka, Chief Minister ...

. He threatened

Ramakrishna Hegde Ramakrishna Mahabaleshwar Hegde (29 August 1926 – 12 January 2004) was an Indian politician who served as the third Chief Minister of Karnataka for three terms between 1983 and 1988. He was elected to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly in 1 ...

, another Chief Minister with a knife at an open house that was photographed by press.. He was accused of barging into the CM's daughters' Beauty Parlour in Sadashivanagar to threaten them. The ensuing search forced him to exit Bengaluru and seek shelter in the Tumakuru farmhouse where he was murdered.

In popular culture

A motion picture in Kannada, ''

Aa Dinagalu ''Aa Dinagalu'' () is a 2007 Indian Kannada-language crime drama film based on the non-fiction novel ''Daadaagiriya Dinagalu'' by Agni Shridhar, and directed by K. M. Chaitanya. It stars Chethan Kumar in the lead role. The supporting cast featur ...

'', directed by K. M. Chaitanya, prominently depicts the rise and murder of Ramachandra. Agni Sreedhar has written an autobiography, ''My Days in the Underworld-Rise of Bangalore Mafia'' (Westland, 2013), in which the murder of Kotwal Ramachandra has been highlighted.

Murder trial

Jayaraj helped the four killers who murdered Ramachandra and disposed of his bones in the

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. Geographically it is positioned between the Indian subcontinent and the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese peninsula, located below the Bengal region. Many South Asian and Southe ...

. He arranged for dog bones to be buried instead, with an intention to mislead the investigation and exonerate the killers.Agni Sreedhar. Chapter 3

Death

He was killed on 22 March 1986 by a four-member goonda team, supported by Jayaraj. He was killed in a farm house near koratagere taluk Allalasandra,

Tumkur Tumkur, officially Tumakuru, is a city and headquarters of Tumakuru district in the Karnataka state of India. Tumkur is known for Siddaganga Matha. Tumkur hosts India's first mega food park, a project of the ministry of food processing. The Ind ...

. His death was not known to outside world for more than a month. Some of his associates continued criminal activity after his death.

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:RamachandraKotwal Indian gangsters 1986 deaths 1986 murders in India Indian robbers Murdered Indian criminals Outlaws People from Bengaluru Urban district Year of birth missing People murdered in Karnataka