Bengaluru: The city police opened fire at two most wanted criminals before nabbing them in the early hours of Wednesday. They were wanted by the Bangaluru Police in a former MLA's kidnapping case as well as the murdering of a business tycoon as per the police.


The Tamil Nadu based criminals are identified as Kaviraj and his associate as Amaresh, from Bengaluru. They were shot at their knees when they tried to flee from their hideout in Byappnahalli area.


The police had to open fire when the criminal duo attacked the search team members that had gone to arrest them in order to overpower these criminals.


However, the criminals were admitted to a hospital for treatment.


According to the police source, these gangsters were wanted in a murder of city based businessman.  On July 5, the members of the notorious gang Kaviraj carried out the killing of the realtor Vijyakumar after taking a ransom amount of Rs 48 lakh. The gang lured the businessman on the pretext of selling a land and murdered him in Hosur.


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It is the same gang led by the wanted criminal Kaviraj that was involved in the kidnapping of former minister Varthur Prakash, who was taken from near Kolar in November 2020.


Karnataka police had arrested Kaviraj in December 2020 and was sent to prison then. But later he came out on bail and his gang became active again and killed Indiranagar based realtor, Vijaykumar in Hosur, sources said.


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