Gangster Pujari alias Subhash Vitthal Pujari alias Siddharth Shetty alias Siddhu alias Sidh alias Johny is a former member of the gangs led by gangsters Kumar Pillai and Chhota Rajan
He was staying in China, and was arrested there last year. After that, the Mumbai Police's Crime Branch had been perusing him deportation and had been continuously following up the legal formalities to bring him back to the country, an official said
Prasad Pujari is allegedly involved in eight serious cases in Mumbai, including firing, extortion and murder. A resident of Tagore Nagar in Vikhroli, he had fled from the country years ago. He had allegedly targeted builders and businessmen in eastern Mumbai, the crime branch official said
Pujari's name came up in the case of firing on Shiv Sena worker Chandrakant Jadhav, who lived in the Vikhroli area, in December 2019. He was apprehended by authorities in Hong Kong in February 2023
"Following a tip-off by the Interpol, Pujari was arrested in March last year in Hong Kong on the charges of possessing a fake passport. He was held when he was preparing to board a flight from Hong Kong to Shenzhen (city in China). Pujari, who is married to a Chinese national, was residing in Shenzhen with his wife and a child at the time of his arrest," the official added
In 2020, the Mumbai Police's crime branch had arrested Pujari's mother, Indira Vitthal Pujari, for her alleged involvement in the case of extortion of a builder from Vikhroli. She was arrested under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) for allegedly extorting Rs 10 lakh from a developer, the official said
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