Fugitive gangster Ravi Pujari brought to Bengaluru from Senegal

Mangalore Today News Network

Bengaluru, Feb 24, 2020: Fugitive notorious gangster Ravi Pujari was brought back to India in the early hours of Monday after he was arrested from Senegal. The gangster, wanted for crimes like murder and extortion, was extradited from Senegal and brought to Bengaluru via France, officials said.

Sources said that Ravi Pujari has been formally placed under arrest and will be produced before the court on Monday.

Ravi Pujari had filed an application before the Supreme Court of Senegal that he was not the person India was looking for, but the intelligence agencies in coordination with Senegal authorities were able to convince the court that Pujari was trying to mislead investigators.

The Supreme Court of Senegal had on Wednesday rejected the plea in which Pujari had pleaded that he should not be extradited to India. After the Supreme Court rejected his application, a team of Karnataka Police with the help of South African authorities and Senegal police detained Pujari.

Karnataka Police is likely to ask for judicial custody of Ravi Pujari and later, he is expected to be taken into police custody in connection with multiple cases lodged against him. The Mumbai Police is also expected to seek Pujari’s custody.

Gangster Raviprakash Sulya Pujari alias Ravi Pujari had been on the run for over 17 years and wanted in over 100 cases across. The 51-year-old has multiples cases of extortion, murder and ransom registered against him. In Karnataka, there are 101 cases against him, while he has been booked in 10 cases in Gujarat, mostly for murder and extortion. There are a few cases in Delhi also, sources said.

Before he was nabbed, Ravi Pujari had established himself as a hotelier with a different identity and was allegedly running his underworld racket from Senegal.

He first came into news in early 2000 when he started extorting from famous Bollywood personalities and builders. He was involved in an attempt to murder case, aimed at killing a prominent lawyer of Mumbai. A Red Corner Notice was issued against him in 2002.

Pujari had been on the run for two decades with many Interpol notices issued against him. Once a right-hand man of fellow gangster Chhota Rajan, he had settled in Senegal after Rajan was arrested from Bali, Indonesia in 2016," sources said.

Hiding with a false identity
Sources in Indian Intelligence said Ravi Pujari, who was hiding with a false identity of Anthony Fernandes, a Burkina Faso passport holder, was located in a remote village in South Africa.

Pujari’s wife Padma and three children had also fled India. His son, who was recently married in Australia, reportedly holds an Australian passport. Last year, Ravi Pujari, living under the identity of Anthony had jumped bailed from a Senegal court.