Bengaluru: Coming from a small village in Puttur taluk of Dakshina Kannada district and holding a job with Vijaya Bank, Muthappa Rai perhaps had never dreamt that he would get into the world of crime.
Like many others, he, by force of circumstances, might have made an entry and found it difficult to get out of the cesspool of the crime world.
After his repatriation, he faced a few cases. Now he is a free man, having been acquitted in all of them. A few years ago, he founded an organization called ‘Jaya Karnataka’ supposedly aimed at social service. He reportedly has business interests abroad, while also being involved in philathropic acts.
Rai’s passport had been impounded by the authorities in 2002. He had applied for a fresh passport in view of his acquittal in all pending cases.
However, the state police had filed an objection saying that in case he was a issued a new passport, there was a every likelihood of his reverting to the field of crime. Hence the passport issuing authority had declined his application.
Consequently, he had appealed to the high court to have this issue cleared. A single-judge bench presided over by Justice Abdul Nazeer has allowed him to apply for a new passport.
He has also ruled that Rai should apply for passport afresh at the competent agency and that upon verification, it should be disposed of within three months.
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