The photo of Muthappa Rai's wife Rekha Rai applying kumkum-turmeric (vermillion) on the guns ― as the 'transformed gangster' looks on ― goes viral
Karnataka-based gangster-turned-social worker Muthappa Rai has been filmed offering puja to guns, pistols and a dagger on the occasion of ayudha puja performed during Dusshera festival.
Karnataka celebrates ayudha puja on this occasion where nowadays people offer puja to vehicles, agricultural tools, construction work tools, computers or any instrument that is used for/at work. But ayudha puja literally means offering prayers to weapons.
It seems Muthappa Rai took the name of the festival literally, offering prayers to his weapons ― four revolvers, three guns and one dagger.
The photo of his wife Rekha Rai applying kumkum-turmeric (vermillion) on the guns as Muthappa Rai looks on has gone viral.
The puja is said to have been conducted at the place of a friend of Rai in Mysuru, Karnataka, where the weapons are seen in the photo kept on a carpet.
Rai has an organisation called Jaya Karnataka, mainly comprising autorickshaw drivers.
Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma was said to be making a movie Rai starring Vivek Oberoi, based on the life of Muthappa Rai, but for reasons unknown, the film was dropped.
Rai has been linked to Dawood Ibrahim in the past. Dubai Police had deported him to India from the UAE in 2002. He was charged in eight cases and interrogated by the Central Bureau of Investigation, Research and Analysis Wing, Intelligence Bureau and Karnataka Police.
Rai was eventually acquitted for lack of evidence.
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