Ahmedabad: A threatening phone call to a businessman in Gujarat led to the arrest of underworld don Ravi Pujari.
The businessman close to political bigwigs received a call for money last November from Mumbai. Two people were arrested in connection with it from Andheri by the Mumbai Police soon. Their phone calls were traced and computers analysed to narrow down Pujari’s location to Senegal in Africa.
A team of Mumbai Police then went undercover as tourists to Senegal and collected definitive clues. The police learnt that Pujari was in Senegal since 2009 and was running a hotel chain.
He was living under the fake identity of Antony Fernandes from Mangalore, keeping off the local police radar. The Senegalese Police were initially apprehensive of Mumbai Police’s story since he was not involved in any cases in the African country. Pujari was arrested after a verification of his passport at the Senegalese Embassy revealed it was fake.
Ravi Pujari is a suspect in the Kochi beauty parlour shooting case. The beauty parlour owned by actor Leena Maria Paul was attacked on December 15 last year by two bike-borne assailants, who left a slip with Pujari’s name. The actor told the police that she had received calls from Pujari asking for Rs 25 crore in the days leading to the shooting.
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