Bengaluru: Adding another feather to its cap, the Karnataka Police successfully extradited fugitive gangster Ravi Pujari from Senegal and brought him back to Bengaluru in the early hours of Monday morning.
But it all began back in 2018, when the police managed to first identify him -- "beyond reasonable doubt" -- on December 18. On January 1 last year, an undercover surveillance reconfirmed his identity. And it was during his "weak moment" on January 19 when Pujari, who was out to get his hair coloured at a barber's shop in Senegal, was accosted by the local police and taken into custody.
The supreme court of Senegal then rejected Pujari's request against extradition, forcing him to spend the last year in a prison in Dakar. On February 22, based on the number of red-corner notices against him, the gangster was handed over to Indian authorities and is now expected to face trial in India.
Wanted in over 200 cases, Pujari was produced before the 1st Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court after a brief medical examination and questioning by the police at their Madivala interrogation centre. He was brought-in by Karnataka Law & Order ADGP Amar Kumar Pande and three other police personnel who were in-charge of the extradition.
"The long chase of this ghost like figure has come to an end with us successfully executing this extradition. Pujari faces 97 cases in Karnataka alone of which 47 cases belong to Bengaluru city. Besides, there are cases in Mumbai, Thane, districts in Gujarat and a case in Kochi. We (Karnataka Police) have the first right over his custody," said Pande.
Pujari became untraceable after committing the murder of another underworld figure in 1994. Thereon, he escaped to Nepal on a fake Indian passport and then traveled to Uganda later. After Uganda, he traveled to multiple other locations like Burkina Faso, Bangkok and Senegal in West Africa.
After having lived in Burkina Faso for 12 years, Pujari acquired citizenship in the country and even got himself a passport under the name of Antony Fernandes.
The Chota Rajan aide, who had shifted base to Senegal for the past 3 years, had started to run an Indian restaurant called 'Maharaja' in the West African state. However, he continued to extort and threat businessmen, real estate firms, film industry fraternities, doctors and activists. He was allegedly also involved in political activities.
Earlier when Pujari was produced in a court, he was asked to state his full name along with his age. Pujari mentioned that he was 52-53 years old, however, going by his Burkina Faso passport, Pujari's date of birth was mentioned as January 25, 1961 and his place of birth was recorded as Mysuru in Karnataka. Pujari's passport had a US visa and he is also said to have traveled to South-East Asian countries like Indonesia and Malaysia. Pujari was also inquired on his knowledge of Kannada, to which he said he could understand but barely speak the language.
Appearing for Ravi Pujari, advocate Dilraj Sequeira and Arvind Kumar submitted an application to the court under section 41 (1) D -- Right of arrested person to meet an advocate of his choice during interrogation, saying that the court should permit them to meet the accused at least for 15 minutes if the interrogation continued for over four hours.
His counsel also asked for a thorough medical examination to be re-done as Pujari mentioned that he was a diabetic and also a heart patient. The court was also requested to video and audio record all the interrogation sessions. Granting these requests, the court stated that there should be no interference in the on-going interrogation process. Pujari is slated to be next produced in court on March 7, 2020.
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