Prasad Pujari arrested for threatening Sena leader

MUMBAI: Gangster Prasad Pujari arrested for threatening Shiv Sena leader Jadhav from Hong Kong; remanded to police custody till Monday.

MUMBAI: Mumbai Crime Branch’s Anti-Extortion Cell (AEC) on Saturday arrested gangster Prasad Pujari alias Subhash Vitthal in connection with a 2023 case registered against him where he had allegedly threatened Shiv Sena leader Chandrashekhar Jadhav several times from Hong Kong. He is remanded to police custody till Monday.

Prasad Pujari arrested for threatening Sena leader

On December 19, 2019, Jadhav went to a Sai Baba temple near his residence in Tagore Nagar, Vikhroli (East). Two shooters, Shetty and Sagar Mishra, followed him into the temple. While Shetty stood outside the temple, Mishra went in and fired five to six bullets at him, resulting in injuring to right arm. Jadhav’s son, with help from passersby, nabbed Mishra, but Shetty managed to escape on his bike. He was, however, arrested based on CCTV footage from outside the temple.

In 2020, Indira, Pujari’s mother, was arrested from Mira Road; Sukesh Kumar, his cousin, was arrested from Mangalore, along with six others after the police found their alleged involvement in an extortion racket. The crime branch sleuths learnt that Indira had travelled five times to China and Hong Kong between 2009 to 2016, based on her passport entries, to meet her son.

In March 2023, Pujari phoned Jadhav from Hong Kong several times and warned him of dire consequences to him and case witnesses if Jadhav did not submit a No Objection Certificate that can grant his mother bail. Jadhav had recorded a few of these calls, made from 2022 to 2023, to submit them to the AEC and demanded an investigation in the matter. Based on his complaint, a case was registered against Pujari in the same month. Provisions of MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act) had been evoked in the case and, on Saturday, he was arrested, produced before the court and remanded to police custody till Monday.

“Pujari’s voice sample was collected to scientifically probe the case if he was the same person calling and threatening the Shiv Sena leader,” said an official.

Pujari, who was staying in China with his wife for 20 years, was deported to India on March 22, 2024. There are 11 cases registered against him for murder, attempt to murder, and extortion at Vikhroli, Ghatkopar, and LT Marg police stations, and with AEC.

Pujari was born and brought up in Tagore Nagar in Vikhroli East where he used to play cricket with gangster Kumar Pillai’s close associates in Hariyali village. He was inspired by Pillai and wanted to become like him. Soon, Pujari started working for Pillai and became his trusted aide. Later in 2005, on Pillai’s advice, he shifted to the special administrative region of China on a student visa to study Chinese language and mass communication.