Mumbai Crime: Anti-Extortion Cell To Take Custody Of Gangster Ravi Pujari In ₹3 Crore Santacruz Extortion Case

Mumbai, Jan 27: The Mumbai Police Anti-Extortion Cell is set to take custody of notorious gangster Ravi Pujari once again in connection with a ₹3 crore extortion case registered in 2014 at Santacruz Police Station, reliable sources said.

2014 Santacruz extortion case

According to police, in 2014, Mumbai-based businessman Imran Shaikh had received threatening calls from Australia, allegedly made in the name of Ravi Pujari, demanding ₹3 crore as extortion and threatening his life if the demand was not met.

Based on the complaint, Santacruz Police registered an FIR, naming Ravi Pujari as a wanted accused. After completing legal formalities in the ongoing cases, the Anti-Extortion Cell is now preparing to take Pujari’s custody in this long-pending case.

Earlier custody in Remo D’Souza case

Earlier, Pujari was taken into custody by the Anti-Extortion Cell in connection with the 2018 extortion and threat case involving film director and choreographer Remo D’Souza and his wife, Lizelle D’Souza. In this case, Prasad Pujari has also been shown as a wanted accused.

On Tuesday, Ravi Pujari was produced before the court after his police custody in the Remo D’Souza case ended. The court remanded him to 14 days of judicial custody.

Police on Tuesday strongly argued before the Esplanade Court that further custodial interrogation of the arrested gangster was necessary, citing multiple crucial aspects of the investigation in the Remo D’Souza extortion case. However, despite these submissions, the court remanded Pujari to judicial custody.

Police seek further interrogation

During the hearing, the prosecution stated that Ravi Pujari had allegedly contacted and threatened the complainant and witnesses using multiple international phone numbers. Police said it was essential to investigate how and from where these international numbers were procured.

The police further argued that it was necessary to probe how Ravi Pujari and wanted accused Prasad Pujari came into contact with previously arrested accused Satyendra Tyagi and to establish the chain of conspiracy behind the extortion plot.

Investigators also submitted that co-accused Kamal Singh Vijay Singh Rajput, acting on the instructions of Ravi Pujari, had allegedly prepared documents related to the NOC (No Objection Certificate) for the film “Death of Amar”. In this context, police sought detailed interrogation of Ravi Pujari to uncover the larger conspiracy.

Additionally, the police told the court that it was crucial to ascertain who provided Ravi Pujari with sensitive information about the complainant and the staff of the complainant’s office, and whether the arrested gangster had more accomplices involved in the crime.

Despite these arguments, the Esplanade Court remanded Ravi Pujari to judicial custody, denying the police request for extended custodial interrogation. However, the Anti-Extortion Cell will now seek his custody again in the Santacruz Police Station case related to the ₹3 crore extortion attempt.

Remo D’Souza extortion case

Ravi Pujari was arrested by the Crime Branch in the 2018 case in which film director Remo D’Souza and his wife, Lizelle D’Souza, were allegedly threatened. Though Pujari had not been arrested in this case earlier, he has been in jail since his deportation from Senegal five years ago.

According to police, acting on the instructions of already arrested accused Satyendra Tyagi, Ravi Pujari allegedly made multiple threatening calls to Remo D’Souza between October 2016 and February 2018, pressuring him to release the film “Death of Amar” quickly and demanding ₹50 lakh to settle the matter.

The case stems from a dispute between Remo D’Souza and producer Satyendra Tyagi, who had entered into an agreement to make the film “Amar Must Die”.

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Tyagi had invested in the project and later claimed that ₹5 crore was due to him, but alleged he did not receive the money. Following the dispute, Tyagi allegedly hired Ravi Pujari to recover the amount. Subsequently, Pujari allegedly issued repeated threats to Remo, his wife and their manager, demanding ₹50 lakh as extortion.

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