Mumbai police to get custody of gangster Ravi Pujari on Monday

Mumbai, Feb 20: A Mumbai police team will go to Bengaluru and take gangster Ravi Pujari into custody on Monday after a court in Karnataka allowed the handover, an official said here on Saturday.

It is a big success in Mumbai Crime Branch''s efforts to get Pujari''s custody, Milind Bharambe, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), Mumbai, said.

Pujari, who was brought to India from South Africa in February last year after being on the run from the law for several years, is currently jailed in Karnataka.

An official said the Crime Branch's Anti Extortion Cell will arrest Pujari in a firing incident that took place in Vile Parle on October 21, 2016, and in which the stringent MCOCA was invoked.

Seven aides of Pujari are already in jail in this case while he was absconding, the official added. A team led by then in charge of AEC Inspector Ajay Sawant and Inspector Sachin Kadam were working to get custody of the gangster, he said.

Pujari, originally from Udupi in Karnataka, ran an extortion racket from abroad that targeted businessmen, film personalities etc, said police.