Underworld Don Ravi Pujari arrested by investigative agencies

Senegal: Underworld don and India’s most wanted Ravi Pujari has been arrested by Senegal police following a tip off by Indian investigative agencies, as per media reports.

Pujari was arrested on January 22 from Dakar and the Indian embassy was informed on January 26, media reports said quoting officials in Senegal.

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Pujari, who is a close aide of Chotta Rajan, is wanted in India for a number of cases including extortion, kidnapping and murder. He started off as a petty criminal and became a criminal with the killing of Bala Zalte, a rival and went on to join Chotta Rajan.

A Dalit leader from Gujarat, Jignesh Mevani had last year filed a police complaint alleging that Ravi Pujari had threatened to kill him.

Earlier, Pujari had allegedly threatened several Bollywood personalities including Mahesh Bhatt and Farah Khan, this was revealed by Mumbai police following the arrest of his alleged henchmen in June last.

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The Mumbai police last week arrested Akash Shetty, considered to be the right hand of Pujari who took over the Mumbai operations, amid high drama in a village in Mangalore in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka.

An officer from AEC said Pujari’s extortion cartel, which had suffered a blow after the arrest of top aide Dasrath Shinde in July 2017, had resumed operations in the past seven-eight months. “Pujari had stopped calling Mumbai developers for the past one-and-a-half years,” the officer said.

Pujari’s arrest is viewed as an important move by the investigative agencies that will help nab Chotta Rajan.

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