Gangster Prasad Pujari detained in Hong Kong

Mumbai: Gangster Prasad Pujari has been reportedly detained in Hong Kong based on information provided by Interpol to the Chinese law enforcement agency

Mumbai: Gangster Prasad Pujari has been reportedly detained in Hong Kong based on information provided by Interpol to the Chinese law enforcement agency.

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Subhash Vitthal Pujari alias Prasad Pujari was a trusted member of Kumar Pillai’s gang and the second-in-command. He is married to a Chinese woman and has a five-year-old son.

Source said the government will start procedures to bring Prasad to the country. However, India has no extradition treaty with China.

Pujari was born in a middle-class family in Tagore Nagar of Vikhroli (East). He used to roam along with Kumar Pillai’s men and was involved in the small scuffle in the area. He entered the crime world in 2002 when he along with other five associates planned to kill the owner of Monica Bar and restaurant in Ghatkopar on the direction of Bunty Pandey.

Pujari’s crime world

Pujari spent two and half years in jail and was later acquitted in September 2005 due to insufficient evidence. Soon after coming out of the jail, he spoke to one of Pillai’s close relatives and asked him to convince Pillai to bring him abroad.

Police sources said that Pillai was in Hong Kong in 2005 where he used to manufacture raw materials for some companies and also had mobile accessory shops. Pujari then fled from the country at the end of 2005 and reached Hong Kong where he was initially staying with Pillai and helped him into his business. Later, he started handling Pillai’s men in India, said a crime branch official.

There are dozens of cases registered against Pujari in the city. The Anti-Extortion Cell of the Mumbai crime branch registered an attempt to murder case against Pujari and his eight associates in 2019 after he sent his men to Kill Shiv Sena leader Chandrashekhar Jadhav in Tagore Nagar. The incident occurred when Jadhav was sitting in his office situated near his residence and a person carrying a revolver fired a few rounds at him. The bullets missed Jadhav and the accused was arrested. The AEC had arrested eight people from Mumbai, Thane, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi and Pujari is wanted in the case.

In 2020, an extortion case was registered against Pujari and his associates for threatening a Vikhroli-based builder and demanding ₹10 lakh from him. Unit 7 was investigating the case and arrested Puajri’s cousin Sukesh Kumar in Mangaluru and mother Indira at Mira Road on March 11, 2020, for giving money to Pujari’s men in the city to run an extortion racket. The Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) was also invoked in the case.