Mumbai : The special Maharastra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court on Tuesday convicted six persons including a builder for extorting money from builders and businessmen at the behest of fugitive gangster Ravi Pujari. Special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam sought life imprisonment for all the convicts. The court heard Nikam and defence lawyers and sentenced all of them to 10 years imprisonment and also directed them to pay Rs 5 lakh fine each.
In July 2010, one Prak-ash Chhabaria, manager of a jewellery showroom at Oshiwara, was fired upon. The case was registered and subsequently ta-ken over by the Anti Extortion Cell of Mumbai crime branch. As it was a case involving organised crime syndicate sections of MCOCA were applied and exhaustive investigation was conducted. The probe later revealed that the assailants were connected with Pujari and the attack was planned to extort money. It was also revealed that the owner of the shop was receiving th-reatening calls. One of the gang members confessed that there was a link between Pujari and city based builder Ravi Punjabi who used to gather information and details of the builders and businessmen and pass on the same to Pujari. Apart from Punjabi, Raju Bhandari, Lala Soni, Nepali, Tannu Thak-kar and Harshad Maru have been convicted.
