Mumbai Police gets custody of gangster Ravi Pujari

After a year-long battle, a Bengaluru court on Saturday granted the custody of extradited gangster Ravi Pujari to Mumbai Police.

Mumbai (Maharashtra): After a year-long battle, a Bengaluru court on Saturday granted the custody of extradited gangster Ravi Pujari to Mumbai Police.

Milind Bharambe, joint commissioner (crime branch), Maharashtra said that Mumbai Police sought the custody of gangster Ravi Pujari, who is lodged in a Karanataka Jail, in connection with the 2016 Ghazali Hotel firing case.

"In the next few days, Pujari will be brought to Mumbai from Karnataka. There are around 49 serious offences registered in Mumbai against him apart from Navi Mumbai and Thane. We had been trying to get his custody for a year, and finally got success in the 2016 Ghazali Hotel firing case," said Bharambe.

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Pujari, who was wanted in several cases, including ones related to heinous crimes like murder and extortion, was extradited to Bengaluru in February 2020 from Senegal.

The gangster, who parted ways with underworld don Chhota Rajan, had jumped bail after he was arrested in Senegal in 2019 and had escaped to South Africa, where he was involved in drug trafficking and extortion.

According to sources in the Indian intelligence, Ravi Pujari was hiding under the false identity of Anthony Fernandes, a Burkina Faso passport holder, in a remote village in South Africa.

(ANI)