Ravi Pujari Arrested in South Africa, To Be Extradited: Police

55-year-old underworld gangster Ravi Pujari is believed to operating from Australia.

(Photo: The Quint)

Fugitive gangster Ravi Pujari has been arrested in South Africa and being brought to India by a team of officials, including senior IPS officers from Karnataka, a top police official said on Sunday.

Pujari, wanted in many cases including extortion and murder and been on the run for over 15 years, was deported to Senegal, from where he had jumped bail last year, and extradited. A police official, part of the team, told PTI,

“(We are) coming with him from Senegal. Now in Paris. (We are) coming by Air France and (would be) there (in India) by midnight, the police official.”

Pujari is likely to be brought to Bengaluru by Monday morning, police sources said.

The National Investigation Agency, (NIA), the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Research and Analysis Wing would join the investigation, the sources said.

According to the police, the gangster, facing over 200 cases including murder and extortion, was arrested in January last year by the Senegal authorities after remaining elusive.

Despite efforts of Indian officials to get him extradited then, a local court had granted him bail and Pujari later fled to South Africa.

Police sources on Sunday said the gangster was nabbed from a village in a joint operation by the South African and Senegal police.

After he was brought to Senegal, the Indian team completed extradition formalities, they added.

Pujari was initially associated with gangster Chhota Rajan, but he had also worked for fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.