AHMEDABAD: The city crime branch on Monday brought gangster and extortionist Ravi Pujari to Ahmedabad from Bengaluru to question him in connection with a 2017 shootout case in which a councillor of Borsad Nagarpalika in Anand district had been targeted.
After landing in the city around 6.30pm on Monday, police personnel produced him at a Borsad court in Anand. Pujari will remain in custody of the city crime branch for around a month after which he will be handed over to Karnataka Police.
In all, there are 70 offences filed across state against Pujari. The city crime branch had so far filed 14 offences mainly of attempt to murder, extortion and criminal intimidation against Pujari. They got sanction from the home department to take his custody.
Following this, a crime branch officer filed a case with a local court in Bengaluru seeking Pujari's custody in connection with a shootout on independent councillor Pragnesh Patel in Borsad. As per case details, Patel was attacked by two motorcycle-borne men who fired four rounds at him outside his house on January 13, 2017. Later, the attackers were revealed to be Pujari's henchmen.
Pujari has been in the custody of Karnataka Police since being extradited from Senegal in January 2019.
On June 29, the Bengaluru court sanctioned the crime branch's plea seeking Pujari's custody and ordered to transfer his custody through transfer warrant. The court also directed the police to provide additional security to the accused while he was in the custody as there was an alleged threat to his life.
