Dawood Ibrahim’s close aide and underworld don Ravi Pujari flees from Senegal: Sources

Underworld don Ravi Pujari has reportedly fled Senegal after securing bail, intelligence sources said on Monday. Pujari, who is named in several criminal cases in India, was once a close aide of Dawood Ibrahim. He was arrested in Senegal on January 21st earlier this year. The news will be a setback to India’s extradition effort. According to a New Indian Express report, Pujari was arrested from a barber shop in Dakar in Senegal on January 21 by local police with the help of  a ‘vital’ tip-off from the then additional director general of police, Intelligence, Karnataka, Amar Kumar Pandey. Pujari faces multiple Red Corner Notices (RCNs) issued by the Interpol.

Originally from Karnataka’s Malpe, the don has been on run for more than 20 years. From extortion (384), kidnapping for ransom (364), murder (302) to criminal intimidation (506), Pujari has numerous cases under the Indian Penal Code against him. Initially a sharp-shooter, Pujari’s meteoric rise in the Mumbai Underworld saw him switching loyalties from Dawood Ibrahim to Chhota Rajan. With more than 98 cases against him in Karnataka alone, uneducated Pujari is fluent in both English and Hindi. He is infamous for sending threat calls to top Bollywood celebrities. At the time of his arrest in January this year, Pujari’s lawyer had said that he is Anthony Fernandez from Burkina Faso as mentioned in his passport.  

In January, the Crime Branch of the Mumbai Police has invoked the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against two alleged members of the Ravi Pujari gang. William Rodricks and Akash Shetty were arrested by the Anti-Extortion Cell (AEC) earlier this month for threatening a builder. MCOCA is usually invoked when the crime has a financial angle. Under the act, police get more time for custodial questioning than in the case of ordinary offences under the Indian Penal Code. Rodricks was arrested from suburban Goregaon on January 15 after he allegedly demanded Rs 2 crore from the builder and also threatened his relatives.

Rodricks has at least three criminal cases registered against him at Goregaon police station earlier (as required under the MCOCA), a senior police official had said.

(With PTI inputs)