Former Don Muthappa Rai's health critical

Bengaluru: As the rumours about the death of reformed underworld don and social activist Muthappa Rai gained momentum on social media, his family sources informed that the news of his death is fake.

As per sources, Muthappa Rai, who was battling cancer for the past year, is said to be in a critical condition at Manipal Hospital in Bengaluru. Doctors said he was on life-support at the time of going to press.

The WhatsApp forwards suggesting the 68-year-old social activist is dead are fake. This is not the first time rumors about Rai’s death have been made.

Born in Puttur into a Bunt family, he started out as a bank employee in Bengaluru and later ran a live band restaurant. In 1994, he was shot in a Bengaluru court by a man dressed as a lawyer, after which he was bedridden for a couple of years.

Rai moved to Dubai in 1996. He was deported from the UAE to India in 2002 and was arrested in Bengaluru when HT Sangliana was the police commissioner. Both Rai and Pujari had allegedly been associated with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.

Mutappa Rai, realtor, entrepreneur, and founder of pro-Kannada organization Jaya Karnataka, had retired from public life after he was diagnosed with cancer. He was part of an ongoing investigation into gangster Ravi Pujari, who was extradited from Senegal recently.