Bengaluru: Fugitive gangster Ravi Pujari wanted in over 200 cases including murder and extortion, was brought to Bengaluru in the early hours of Monday. According to reports, he will be produced before the magistrate today.
Pujari, who parted ways with underworld don Chhota Rajan, had jumped bail from Senegal last year and had escaped to South Africa, where he was involved in big-time drug trafficking and extortion.
Sources in Indian Intelligence said that Pujari, who was hiding with a false identity of Anthony Fernandes, a Burkina Faso passport holder, was nabbed in a remote village in South Africa.
On learning about his arrest in Senegal, a team of police officers, including Additional Director General of Police Amar Kumar Pandey and Bengaluru Joint Police Commissioner Sandeep Patil went to Senegal to bring him.
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The team completed the extradition process and finally brought him to Bengaluru by an Air France flight.
The mafioso first hit the headlines in early 2000 when he started extorting huge amounts from famous Bollywood personalities and builders. He was involved in an attempt to murder case, aimed at killing a prominent lawyer of Mumbai.
Pujari's wife and three children also fled India and some of them hold Burkina Faso passports. His son who was recently married in Australia reportedly holds an Australian passport.
Earlier last year Pujari, living under identity of Anthony had jumped bailed from a Senegal court through fraudulent means. Pujari now goes under the name of Anthony Fernandes and is a citizen of Burkina Faso, a West African country, his date of birth is shown as 25.1.1961.
(With inputs from PTI, IANS)