Harish Tolar first staked his claim to fame by bashing up boys who misbehaved with girls in his college. MiD DAY brings you the lowdown on the 'mafioso' the police shot at and captured yesterday
Harish Tolar first staked his claim to fame by bashing up boys who misbehaved with girls in his college. MiD DAY brings you the lowdown on the 'mafioso' the police shot at and captured yesterday
Harish Tolar, don Ravi Poojari's right-hand man whom the police captured yesterday, had nursed ambitions of being a rowdy since his college days.
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Santhosh Kumara Shetty, who studied arts with Harish at St Aloysius College in Mangalore, said Tola as he was nicknamed in college was fascinated by rowdies and underworld dons even then. Tola means wolf.
Tolar hails from a well-to-do family, which owned a transport company, Shetty told MiD DAY.
The first time
Tolar shot to fame when he hit Pandu Pai and Chimney Santu, henchmen of Mumbai don Sadu Shetty, on the college premises. Tolar was 20 then, and still in college.
The provocation was Chimney misbehaving with girls in the college canteen while on his way to a court nearby. Tolar hit him and the policemen escorting Chimney had to separate the two.
Pandu Pai came to the college later to attack Tolar but was thrashed instead.
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A file photo of Harish Tolar |
Recalling the incident, Shetty said, "We were thrilled at Tolar's daring act of hitting the rowdies for misbehaving with the girls, and throwing them in the gutter."
Later, Pandu Pai became the righthand man of Poojari, when Sadhu Shetty was killed in a police encounter in 2003.
Gangster
Police have a less flattering impression of Tolar. They say he acted on behalf of Poojari and threatened city-based builders and industrialists.
"Tolar collected information on big barons and gave their phone numbers to Poojari, who would call them for extortion," police said.
Harish is the prime accused in the 2007 murder of Mangalore builder Subba Rao. Poojari had directed Tolar to shoot Rao after he refused to give in to his extortion threats, police said.
Teacherspeak
Donet D'Souza, physical director at St Alysious College, said, "Tolar was an average student. He was a volley ball player and represented the college. He was a nice boy but bad company took him to the underworld. He completedu00a0 his degree in 1995-96 and became active in the underworld."
u00a0
Tolar in the trap
Harish Tolar was reportedly shot at by the Central Crime Branch at around 5.30 am in Jnanabharathi limits on Sunday. Tolar, being treated at Victoria Hospital, is out of danger.
CCB officials said they received information that Harish was driving on Mysore Road and would enter the city soon.
Two teams were formed immediately. One traced Tolar and gave chase. He reportedly started speeding and lost control of the vehicle. Police said he rammed a cement pipe inside the university campus. By this time, the first team, alerted by their colleagues, caught up with him.
"Our officials warned him to surrender. Instead, he jumped out of the car and fired at our officers," city police commissioner S M Bidari said.
A police official who took part in the operation said they had no choice but to shoot back. "He would have easily escaped into the thick acacia grove," he said.
Police have recovered Tolar's revolver and car.
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