LeT-backed PFI planned to kill Karnataka ex-dy CM Eshwarappa, says Pujari

Nagpur: Jayesh Pujari alias Shaheer Shakeer Shah Shashikant Pujari, 35, now in custody of Nagpur police for threatening Union minister Nitin Gadkari twice, has claimed that the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and its sponsored organization, the Popular Front of India, had planned to bump off Karnataka’s former deputy chief minister KS Eshwarappa for his “rhetoric against the minorities”.
A team of National Investigation Agency (NIA) camping in the city for the last week is likely to take up probe.
According to sources, Pujari had started threatening various persons including Gadkari, after the nationwide crackdown on PFI in which 15 of his acquaintances were put behind the bars.
Sources said a 70-page report was sent by city police chief Amitesh Kumar to NIA, Intelligence Bureau (IB), state anti-terrorist squad and others recently. The report mentioned that Jayesh, a converted Muslim, along with his gang in Belagavi prison, had given ‘supari’ to a former fellow prisoner to gun down veteran BJP neta Eshwarappa who had stepped down as deputy CM ahead of Karnataka polls.
Pujari, along with Afsar Pasha and others, is carrying out various terror activities from Belagavi jail at the instance of LeT and their Pakistan-based handlers, said sources.
Sources stated that LeT and the handlers are providing Rs four lakh a month Pujari and his gang in jail to allow them access to electronic communication gadgets for sharing details, video chat and other works.
A school drop-out after Std VII, Pujari knows eight languages including English and Hindi. He is tech-savvy too, said sources.
Sources stated Pujari, a native of village in Kerala, had left home at the age of 12 and shifted to Mumbai where he adopted Islam in 2004 and underwent training in the religion. He returned to his village after his parents bailed him out in a vehicle theft case in Karnataka in 2007.
In August 2008, Pujari murdered his uncle’s daughter-in-law and her son for opposing his Muslim conversion and namaaz in the village. After fleeing the village, Pujari got married in Mumbai and fathered two sons. He was divorced in 2013.
In 2012-13, one Shelfi Mustafa had introduced Pujari to PDF. In 2013, he was nabbed and sent to Mangaluru jail.
Pujari started working for PFI and its Karnataka chapter Karnataka Dignity Forum (KDF) at the instance of Chhota Shakeel after connecting with him through Rashid Malabari, a fellow innate at Mangaluru jail.
While in a Bengaluru’s hospital for treatment after his arrest in 2013, Pujari had met south India’s commando for LeT, Capt Nazeer, who is convicted in Bengaluru serial blasts and has 16 offences against him. Nazir had trained Pujari and Pasha in bomb-making and planting explosives. Pasha is also facing terror charges and was one of the members of the national executive committee of PFI, said sources.
In Mangaluru jail, Pujari had narrowly escaped being named for the murder of Ganesh Shetty who was killed to avenge Yusuf Khan’s murder.
Pujari has tried to flee on a number of occasions. His death sentence was later commuted to lifer.
On January 14, Pujari had made three calls to Gadkari's office demanding Rs100 crore in the name of Dawood Ibrahim. On March 21, Pujari again called Gadkari’s office and demanded Rs10 crore.
Nagpur police had brought Pujari to the city on March 31. “We have invoked the Unlawful (Activities) prevention Act (UAPA),” said the CP but refused to comment on Pujari's link with terrorists or the underworld.
City police have recovered two mobile phones and two SIM cards from Pujari’s cell in Belgavi jail.