Mumbai cops get gangster Ravi Pujari's remand in 2017 threat case

Gangster Ravi Pujari. File pic

A Mumbai court on Monday remanded gangster Ravi Pujari in police custody till March 20 in a case of threatening a property consultant in suburban Kandivali in 2017. Pujari was brought to Mumbai from Bengaluru on February 22 in connection with a firing case that took place in Vile Parle in 2016.

Pujari was sent to judicial custody by an MCOCA court at the end of his police remand in the 2016 case, but police said they needed his custodial interrogation in connection with the 2017 Kandivali case.

The police, after seeking required permissions, later produced him before another judge and sought his custody for 20 days in the 2017 case.

The prosecution said the Kandivali property consultant had approached police claiming to have received threat calls from Pujari for taking up the redevelopment project of a housing society in suburban Dindoshi.

However, Pujari's lawyer DS Manerkar said his client cannot be remanded for 20 days as the police had already been questioning him since February 22. The special court then remanded Pujari in police custody in the 2017 case till Saturday.

Pujari was extradited to India from Senegal in west Africa in February last year after being on the run for several years, and was lodged in a jail in Bengaluru.

According to Mumbai police, Pujari, who hails from Udupi in Karnataka, ran an extortion racket from abroad, targeting businessmen and film personalities among others.

He has 49 cases lodged against his name in various Mumbai police stations, officials had earlier said.

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