Five members of the Ravi Poojari gang arrested in Mumbai

Mumbai, Dec 14 (UNI) Five members of the Ravi Poojari gang, a breakaway faction of the Chhota Rajan gang, were arrested from a shopping mall in the city, police today said.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Meera Borwankar told mediapersons the crime branch had recieved information that the gangsters, wanted for their alleged role in the firing at Bollywood producer Mahesh Bhatt's office recently, would be coming to Platinum Shopping Mall at Ghatkopar around 2200 hrs yesterday, to eliminate a hotelier from that area.

Acting on the tip-off, a police team laid a trap. As soon as they arrived on the spot, they were asked to surrender.

But one of them opened fire on the police, which was returned.

While five of the gangsters were taken into custody, one of their gang members, Suresh Poojari who was sitting in the car in which they had arrived, managed to give the police a slip, Ms Borwankar said.

Police have seized four foreign made pistols and one revolver from their possession, she informed.

The arrested gangsters have been identified as Santosh Appu Poojari (33), Ramesh Sudhershan Kanojiya (27), Arvind Mohan Devadiga alias Aka Arun (34), Nityanand Vithal Shetty alias Nitya (22) and Sampat Shankar Kotiyan (23).

Besides the firing incident at Bhatt's office, they were wanted for several cases of extortion in neighbouring Thane and Navi Mumbai.

The Joint Commissioner of Police said the gang used to delibrately target celebrities and other high profile personalities to garner publicity.

Regarding the motive behind the firing at Mr Bhatt's office, she said that investigation in that case was progressing and it would not be proper to disclose anything at this juncture.

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