5 member of Ravi Poojari gang remanded in judicial custody

Mumbai, Jan 29 (UNI) The special MCOCA court today remanded five members of underworld don Ravi Poojari in judicial custody till February 12, for their alleged involvement in opening firing outside the office of Bollywood producer Mahesh Bhatt, in June last year.

All the five were produced before the MCOCA judge M R Bhatkar this afternoon, who remanded them in Judicial custody till February 12.

The arrested people were - Santosh Appu Poojari (33), Ramesh Sudhershan Kanojiya (27), Arvind Mohan Devadiga (34) Nityanand Vithal Shetty (22) and Sampat Shankar Kotiyan (23).

Earlier, police had arrested them from Ghatkopar area when they reached there to eliminate a hotelier on December 13 and seized four imported pistols, one revolver, 25 cartridges from their possession.

Later, on interrogation they confessed to their alleged role in the firing and entering Bhatt's office on June 14. Since Bhatt was not in the office, they fired one round and left an envelope asking Bhatt to contact Ravi Poojari on the given telephone number.

All of them were also wanted for firing at a builder at Andheri in western suburbs and a hotelier at Mulund in eastern suburbs. They were also were actively involved in extortion activities in Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai area.

UNI