Greater Noida: Police seek 7-day remand of gangster Ravi Kana

Kana and his friend were arrested from the IGI Airport in Delhi last Friday following their deportation from Bangkok, Thailand

Noida: The Greater Noida Police on Monday filed an application before the Gautam Budh Nagar district court seeking police custody remand of Ravi Nagar alias Kana for seven days, officers said.

Gangster Ravi Kana (HT Photo)

Forty-two-year-old Kana alias Ravi Nagar, alias Ravindra Nagar, a Greater Noida-based gangster and scrap dealer, and his friend Kajal Jha (30) were arrested from the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi last Friday following their deportation from Bangkok, Thailand.

The arrests came three months after Kana was booked under charges of gangrape of a 25-year-old woman in parking lot of a mall in Sector 38A, Noida, by the Noida Police following which charges under Gangster Act were also invoked against him and 15 others, for allegedly being involved in illegal activities in Noida, Greater Noida, and Ghaziabad for over two decades.

Kana and Jha were sent to 14-day judicial custody on Saturday after being produced before a magistrate in Greater Noida. They are now lodged in the district jail in Luksar, Greater Noida.

“We want to interrogate him further on the charges against him, before filing a chargesheet before the court. He will be questioned to probe links to his scrap dealing business and extortion allegations,” said deputy commissioner of police (Greater Noida), SM Khan.

Kana was interrogated for about four hours before being sent to judicial custody on Saturday, at the Knowledge Park police station in Greater Noida.

“He was asked at least 50 questions related to other people involved in his gang, how many people they have so far extorted from, involvement of influential people and his bank and company details which were allegedly used for money laundering,” said a senior officer.

Police have not sought Jha’s PCR from the court. A hearing in the matter is scheduled on Tuesday, the officer added.

Kana is currently lodged in a high security cell in Luksar as his security is also a matter of concern for police since members of his rival Sundar Bhati gang which had killed Kana’s brother Harendra Pradhan, are also lodged in the same jail.

According to commissioner of police (Gautam Budh Nagar) Laxmi Singh, Kana’s gang has been involved in illegal activities in Noida, Greater Noida, and Ghaziabad for over two decades.

The gang members used to stop the trucks carrying iron rebars and steal a certain number of rods from the load while the leader Ravi Kana would threaten the site manager into registering the weight of stolen rods too in the stock book, the officer said.

“The robbed rebars were subsequently sold in the market at profitable prices, hence making money for the gang,” said Singh.

Similarly, the commissioner added, that the gang has been involved in coercing industrialists into giving tenders to his company named Prime Pressing Tools, and threatening them against signing contracts with anyone else for managing scrap and iron rods.

Kana has been taking tenders forcefully from scrap dealers at around 10% of the market rates under the name of his gang members, the officer said.

“Kana owns a scrap company named Prime Pressing Tools Pvt Ltd wherein he is said to have made 97% profits in the last 3 years. As per details from UP STF (Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force), Kana was doing the scrap business and illegal dealing of iron rebars for another gangster Anil Dujana, who was killed in a police encounter last year,” she added.

DCP Khan said that Kana will be further interrogated on these allegations.