Extradited gangster Ravi Pujari whose custody Mumbai police received recently from a Karnataka court was produced before a special court in the city this morning and has been remanded in police custody by the court for 14 days till 9 March.
An order was issued by a special court in Bangalore last Saturday that enabled his custody. The Mumbai police had produced documents before the Bangalore court. The documents included permission granted by Senegal authorities for investigation in his Mumbai cases and also a production warrant issued for his production before a Mumbai court.
Earlier, the Mumbai police had been denied his custody by the Bangalore court as Senegal authorities had permitted his investigation only in the Karnataka cases as only these were produced while seeking extradition. The Mumbai police had thereafter approached Senegal authorities through the Ministry of External Affairs and received permission for investigation in his Mumbai cases.
Pujari, who was on run for several years, was extradited in February 2020 from Senegal. After extradition, he was sent to judicial custody in Bangalore jail.
The Mumbai police sought his custody in the 2016 Gajalee Restaurant firing case where his henchmen had allegedly fired in an extortion attempt at the restaurant’s owner. In this case, seven persons were arrested under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act (MCOCA) while Pujari was named a wanted accused. The gangster has around 49 pending cases in Mumbai.
