Gangster Prasad Pujari extradited from China to Mumbai by Crime Branch officials
In what is the first-ever deportation of a wanted fugitive by China, the Mumbai Police Crime Branch has brought back notorious gangster Prasad Vitthal Pujari – who was arrested in February 2023 following an Interpol notice, officials said here on Saturday.
A resident of the Vikhroli suburb in north-east Mumbai, Pujary, 44, along with a team of Mumbai Police sleuths, arrived here by an early morning flight and he has been taken to a police lock-up.
A member of the Kumar Pillai gang, Pujari had been on the run for over five years for various serious crimes, his name had figured in the failed assassination bid on a Shiv Sena activist, kidnappings, death threats, plus extortion rackets targeting builders and prominent people in Mumbai and other places.
Earlier in 2020, Pujary, along with his mother Indira Vitthal Pujari, and two others, had masterminded the abduction of a builder to extort Rs.10 lakh, but the Mumbai Police had arrested Indira Vitthal Pujari while her son remained out of their grasp.
The complainant had allegedly received threatening calls from Pujari through WhatsApp and BOTIM, an internet-based video call app in January and February, he said.
As per investigations, Pujary had been living on a temporary residence visa in China since 2008 and after the country agreed to hand him over, the Mumbai Police had been pursuing the matter for several years before netting him on Saturday.
Pujari was arrested when he was about to take a flight with his wife from Hong Kong. He has been wanted since the past 20 years for his involvement in several murder and extortion cases. Pujari was arrested in March last year in Hong Kong on Interpol’s notice, as per the report.
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