CCB sleuths dig up Ravi Pujari’s past in Naushad Kashimji murder case

Mangaluru: A little more than 11 years after lawyer Naushad Kashimji was gunned down at the basement of his apartment in Falnir on April 9, 2009, underworld gangster Ravi Pujari, who allegedly ordered the hit on human rights lawyer, is now facing the heat for this crime. A team from Central Crime Branch (CCB) of Bengaluru City Police is in this coastal city in connection with the ongoing investigation into a series of crimes attributed to Pujari.
CCB sleuths, who obtained Pujari’s police custody in connection with this case, are tying up the loose ends pertaining to the murder of Kashimji who was representing D-Company hitman Abdul Rashid Hassan Malbari aka Malbari. Pujari, who had remained elusive from the Indian lawmakers for more than 15 years, was said to be unhappy over Kashimji representing Malbari. Pujari had also allegedly issued life threats, directing him to desist from doing so.
A retired senior police officer said Pujari was also not happy with Kashimji venturing to defend Indian Mujahideen members that then district police had arrested. He had received more than 10 international threat calls from March 30 to April 9 (the day he was murdered), the officer said, adding that the advocate has not informed the police or his then senior Purushottam Poojary about receiving the threat calls. “This came to light when police went through his call records later,” the officer explained.
“CCB team is primarily focusing on Pujari’s role in the advocate’s sensational murder,” a senior CCB officer handling the investigating told TOI. “We have also lined up other cases in which Pujari is allegedly involved, but had filed the chargesheet against him in absentia as he was then a fugitive,” the officer added. The team is now picking up threads of Pujari’s involvement cases in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Chikkamagaluru districts.
Pujari, currently in police custody in Bengaluru, is accused in more than 30 cases reported in Mangaluru from 2007 to 2018. Majority of the cases against Pujari pertain to extortion and extending death threats, one relating to murder, three to shootings/ abduction and one where he supplied money to his henchmen in prison. Police have filed ‘C’ report in 17 out of 28 threat call cases and ‘B’ report in one case. Rest are in different stages of trial.