Bengaluru, A court has granted the two wishes of captured gangster Ravi Pujari, allowing his lawyer to be present during the probe and recording the enquiry, a police officer said on Tuesday.
“As per the court’s direction, we are allowing Pujari’s lawyer to be present during the investigation and also recording the enquiry,” Central Crime Branch Deputy Commissioner of Police Kuldeep Jain told IANS.
Interestingly, India managed to extradite Pujari from West African nation Senegal without an extradition treaty.
“Though we did not have an extradition treaty, we managed to bring Pujari by persuading the Senegalese authorities,” said Jain.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra and Gujarat are also seeking Pujari’s custody which Jain said may happen after Bengaluru police finish their investigation.
Currently, the gangster is in 14-day police custody for investigation into several criminal cases against him.
A 4-member Karnataka police team led by Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) A.K. Pandey brought the 52-year-old underworld don to Bengaluru from Dakar in Senegal via Paris in an Air France scheduled flight during the early hours of Monday and kept him at an interrogation centre in the city’s south-east suburb.
Of the over 200 cases against Pujari in the southern state, 39 are in Bengaluru, 36 in Mangaluru, 11 in Udupi on the state’s west coast and one each at Mysuru, Hubballi-Dharwad, Kolar and Shivamogga in Malnad.
The other cases are in Mumbai (49) and in Gujarat (75) pertaining to extortion, kidnapping, ransom demand and murder threats.
Pujari also extorted huge amounts from popular Bollywood stars and realtors. He was also involved in an attempt to murder case, aimed at killing a prominent lawyer of Mumbai.
