Pramesh S Jain
“One more feather in the cap added to Karnataka state police as Fugitive india’s most wanted Gangster Ravi Pujari extradited to India”.
Fugitive gangster Ravi Pujari has been extradited and brought to India.On the intervening night of Sunday-Monday, the Bangalore Police officials brought him here from Senegal,an African country.The gangster has about 200 cases of murder and extortion in India.
A 59-year-old underworld operative, Ravi Pujari who was on the run since 1994 and holed up in Senegal was brought back to Bengaluru and taken into custody to question his involvement of over 46 criminal cases pending against him.
Ravi Pujari,native of Malpe in the Udupi district,used to operate in Mumbai in the 1990s,was brought back to India late last night after he was arrested and extradited from Senegal where he was living for the past three years running a hotel; business successfully and gained popularity for his social work.He was flown to Bengaluru by a team of officials led by ADGP ( law and order) Dr Amar Kumar Pandey,Joint commissioner of Police ( crime) Sandeep Patil and team.
Wanted in over 200 cases,Pujari was produced before the 1st Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court after a brief medical examination and questioning by the police at their Madiwala interrogation centre.He was brought-in by Karnataka Law&Order ADGP,Dr Amar Kumar Pandey, Joint CP,Crime,Sandeep Patil,PI,Mallesh Bolletin,and other police personnel who were in-charge of the extradition.Today he was presented in the court, where Judge V Jagdish said,”There will be no interference in the investigation.”In addition,the court also ordered the police to make a video of the entire investigation.
Pujari,who was wanted in 97 criminal cases in the state including 47 cases in Bengaluru city related to extortion and murder.He was produced before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate and remanded to police custody till March 7.
Thanking the authorities concerned of Burkina Faso and Senegal authorities and his counterparts in India from other departments for their cooperation to secure Ravi Pujari,Amar Kumar Pandey told media persons that after a chase of ghost like figure,the case which was assigned to him July 2018 came to the conclusion.Soon after the case was handed over to him,the officials took Atleast six months to locate him followed by identification and reconfirmation.After the due procedure of confirmation,an under cover surveillance was set on him and the officials got him in the week moment at a salon in Senegal . Mr.Pandey explained.
Elaborating on the operation,he said that Ravi Pujari had gone to a saloon to color his hair when he was arrested by the Senegal authorities.Since then Ravi Pujari was in the Senegal authorities since then before he was handed over to the special team on Saturday.Objecting to the red corner notice,Ravi Pujari appealed to the supreme court of Senegal not to extradite him to India,but the SC rejected his last legal option on last Wednesday and passed an order for immediat extradition considering the criminal background misusing Senegal name.
Though there is no extradition treaty between Senegal and India,the government accorded the bileteral treaty and faccilitated the extradition without much hassle,Mr. Pandey added.
A popular figure in Senegal:
Ravi Pujari’s arrest and extradition was a rude shock among the citizen of Senegal as he was very popular,a success businessman and a social workers who helped many people .According to Amar Pandey Ravi Pujari shifted from Burkina Faso to Senegal and started a restaurant under the brand -Maharaja,which is famous for indiain cuisines.He was a respectable businessman with a annual income of Rs 30 lakh and also provided employment to many locals at his restaurants.
Besides this he gained popularity for doing social work like organising public events and even helped poor people by distributing clothes and gifts on special ocassion.Besides this he would take up social work seeking help of philanthropists to donate for water pumps for the people to supply potable water in poor localities across Senegal.
Besides his restaurant he was also having business of textile and electronic goods which made him flourish and popular figure.It was only when the Senegal police were updated with his criminal background through red corner notices and the authorities were upset that he is misusing the name of their country.
With fake name:
While in Burkina Faso,Ravi Prakash Pujari as his original name,lived in the name of Antony fernandes,remaned by his underworld mentor Chota Rajan way back in 1994.Ravi shortened his name to tony Fernandes and lived with it till he fled to Nepal after the Mumbai crime police was on his massive manhunt for his involvement in series of criminal cases.
After fleeing to Nepal with his associates, Ravi Pujari procured a fake passport got issued from Mysore through an agent and went to Bangkok and then to Uganda where he started continuing his extortion racket.When Ravi Pujari sensed that the Indian police are trying to track him down,he shifted to Burkina Faso and lived their for 12 years doing hotel business and other garment and electronic goods business before getting the passport from the same country.
Ravi shifted to Senegal three years ago and started a Maharaja Resturant known for Indian cuisine.Using the Burkina Faso.He traveled to many countries including Malaysia, Indonesia and even to USA,Mr.Pandey said adding that the investigation is on to ascertain the purpose of his visit.
While sitting in Burkina Faso,Ravi pujari who continued his extortion racket through his well organised network in India,who would provide his details of the person and also helps in logistics.He had over 97 cases pending against him across major cities of India including Maharashtra, Gujarat, Kerala including Karnataka.
“Are u from India” Ravi pujari asks cops”
When Mr. Pandey along with his team went to secure his custody,Ravi Pujari who was visibly shaken asked them in Hindi “Are you from India and how come you are here “, Mr.Pandey replied that they came to see him since he called them.During the handing over procedure,Ravi Pujari was not aware about the procedure and was under duress and stress.However after the handing over,the team took him to the confidence,offered him tea to make him feel familiar and comfortable. Following this ravi Pujari cooperated in the journey without any fuss.
A special team to probe all the cases : DG&IGP- Praveen Sood;
Director General and Inspector General of Police,Praveen Sood,has formed a special team to probe the all the cases.Among the 47 cases registered in Bengaluru against him,there are some important cases including,Shabnam developers shoot out case where two persons Shailaja and Ravi were gun down by his associates at their office in Tilak Nagar in 2007.
Similar cases reported in Mantri mall shootout case and UTV office shoot out cases where his accomplice barged into the office and opened fire after they we refused ransom.Ravi Pujari has also been made accused in the builder Sujjaraju murder case reported in Vyyalikaval in January 2001.
The accused would targets businessmen, builders,VIPs and politicians to make ransom calls.Claiming to be Hindu don, Ravi Pujari would also make threat calls to people who have opions and active in social media.He set his local team to gather information about him, family, wealth and business before making a call through internet.He had a wide network spread across many states and activated whenever they get call from him.The investigations are to identify and track them down,Mr. Sandeep Patil added.
