A court in Bengaluru on Monday remanded notorious gangster Ravi Pujari in police custody till March 7 hours after he was brought to India from Senegal. He is accused of murder, kidnapping and extortion,
A team of officials including senior IPS officers escorted Pujari in an Air France flight that landed around 1 am at Bengaluru’s Kempegowda Internatinal Airport. Authorities waited for all passengers to deboard before escorting Pujari out. A heavy security blanket had been thrown over the airport.
Pujari was later produced in the first Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) court in Bengaluru and was remanded in 14 days custody to City Crime Branch (CCB) to enable them to interrogate him.
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“Though we don’t have an extradition treaty with Senegal we were able to finally nab him because of our bilateral understanding. Would like to thank Senegalese authorities for the cooperation extended to us,” said Additional Director General Police Amar Kumar Pandey who played a key role in Pujari’s arrest in South Africa last week and his extradition from Senegal.
He also said that Pujari had been travelling on a Burkina Faso passport after having obtained citizenship there.
Pujari has more than 200 cases registered across the country including 97 cases in Karnataka alone. He was arrested in Senegal in West Africa in January 2019 but he jumped bail and fled to South Africa, where he was allegedly involved in drug trafficking and extortion rackets. Pandey said that Pujari was hiding under the identity of Anthony Fernandes, a Burkina Faso passport holder, and was located in a remote village in South Africa. On a tip-off from the India’s external intelligence agency, the Senegal police flew to South Africa last week and arrested the 52-year-old gangster.
“Once the Karnataka police investigate him in all the cases registered in the state and charge sheets submitted, other agencies would be given opportunity to try him under the law,” Pandey said.
{{/usCountry}}“Once the Karnataka police investigate him in all the cases registered in the state and charge sheets submitted, other agencies would be given opportunity to try him under the law,” Pandey said.
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