BENGALURU: A city-based businessman-cum-realtor has been receiving repeated extortion calls over the past one month from a person who claims himself to be Ravi Pujari, the notorious gangster from Malpe. A case has been registered at Vijayanagar police station in this regard.

Nataraj K N (48), a resident of Vinayaka Layout, told police that the caller was demanding Rs 1.5 crore from him. He also threatened the complainant that the latter’s movements were being tracked.

Nataraj in the complaint alleged that on January 12 the caller contacted him twice but he did not pick up calls. Around evening, he again called from the same number when Nataraj’s wife picked up the call.

The caller introduced himself to her as Ravi Pujari from Mangaluru and asked for ransom. He told her that Nataraj was taking care of a construction project in Delhi and he wanted  Rs 1.5 crore. He gave a deadline of ten days.

“Nataraj ignored the subsequent calls made by the person, and he did not even discuss it with anyone. On January 26 and 27, however, ‘Ravi Pujari’ again called Nataraj and claimed that he had sent few of his associates near his residence. He threatened to kill him since he was not taking his warnings seriously. Nataraj then visited the police station and shared the call details with police. The phone remains switched off and network location of the phone is being tracked,” said a senior police official.