Mumbai: Notorious gangster Ravi Pujari is again on the police`s radar.
Pujari, who has been on the run for a decade, is believed to be hiding in a foreign country and has become a headache for Bollywood personalities, private developers and businessmen due to his extortion activities.
His latest victim is film producer and director Boney Kapoor. Pujari recently called Kapoor and said that two of his gang members, Manod Rathod and Prakash Kamble, were arrested by the police because of the complaint lodged by him.
Around two years ago during the tenure of Mumbai police commissioner Sanjeev Dayal, the Mumbai police started efforts to seek the help of Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Interpol to track Pujari`s location. He had already threatened several film personalities and businessmen in the city, especially in the western suburbs.
Pujari had threatened several film personalities in the last four to five years.
The city police had gathered around 100 mobile numbers which Pujari used to call film personalities and builders for extortion. The numbers had been sent to the Ministry of External Affairs.
"Pujari has often been used by central intelligence agencies as an asset because he provides information about rival gang members," said a state intelligence official.
Earlier, Pujari only targeted builders, businessmen and jewellers but for the past four to five years he has started calling film personalities and demand ransom.
A police officer said: "Initially, Pujari only made extortion calls and did not harm his target. Businessmen did not take his calls seriously. But two years ago when his two men pumped bullets into the two persons working at an under-construction side in Andheri (West), he became a terror."
UK cell phone numbers
The central agencies and the city police claim that they are not aware about gangster Ravi Pujari`s location. But, he has been constantly threatening film personalities and businessmen for the past several years.
"Pujari has been making the calls using internet phone services and foreign-service providers don`t cooperate with the city police," said a police officer.
The police cite another reason the gangster has managed to evade them.
"Pujari changes his number soon after he makes the call. So, each call has a different mobile phone numbers," said another police officer, adding: "The maximum numbers he used for extortion and threatening are UK cell phone numbers."
DNA
