Gangster Ravi Pujari extradited from South Africa to B'luru

Bengaluru: Fugitive underworld don Ravi Pujari, with more than 90 criminal charges pending against him, was brought to the city in the wee hours of Monday after he was arrested from Senegal in South Africa.

Police said that he was wanted in more than 92 criminal cases.  In Bengaluru alone he was involved in more than 39 cases, including double murder of Ravi and Shobana in 2007, attempt to murder attack on Mantri developers 2009, extortion and other crimes etc. He had committed crimes in various parts of the state including Myusuru, Hubballi, he had involved in extortion, threatening builders, politician etc. 

"Though Senegal police had nabbed him about six month back to get him to India it took more than six month since there was no agreement to depart criminals from that state to us.  However, now all legal hurdles have been removed and we have succeeded in bringing him", a top police official told UNI.

A team of Bengaluru Police headed by Additional Director General of Police Amar Kumar Pandey, Joint Police Commissioner Sandeep Patil reached Senegal on Saturday and brought him to the city by Air France flight.

Ravi Poojari was wanted in cases of extortion and murder and was active in the Mumbai underworld. He was part of the underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's gang and later is said to have worked with 'Chota Rajan' for some time. Claiming to be an enemy of Dawood, Poojari reportedly finished off all his associates and anti-India elements in the country. His men were involved in a shootout on the Shabanam Developers office in Bengaluru in which a woman staffer was killed.

He is also said have been involved in the shootout case of Shahid Azmi, an advocate from Mumbai. There are cases against him in Kerala, Gujarat, and Maharashtra.(UNI)