Bengaluru: Acting on a tip-off by the state police through Interpol, Pujari was caught inside a barber shop in Dakar and detained by its police for identification as he was masquerading under a new identity as Antony Fernandez with a fake passport from Burkino Faso.
“State Additional General of Police (ADGP) for Intelligence Amar Kumar Pandey kept track of Pujari since June first in Burkino Faso and later in Senegal where he shifted with wife and children and was operating a restaurant chain in partnership with locals,” recalled the state government in a statement on Saturday, February 2.
Though Pandey lost track of Pujari alias Fernandez in Burkino Faso, he found him subsequently in Dakar and alerted Indian Ambassador to Senegal Rajeev Kumar for arresting him with the help of the local police.
“The Senegal Interior Minister and its Director of Judicial Police arrested Pujari from a barber shop in Dakar and his original identity was found,” said the statement.
Though it is 12 days since Pujari was arrested in Dakar, the state government, however, has no clue when he would be extradited to India and flown to Bengaluru or Mangaluru on the state’s west coast where he operated.
“Pujari carried out his criminal activities across four coastal states of Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat since 2001, employing sharpshooters to attack targets for extorting huge sums of money,” said the statement.
The don used to select the place of attack and targets for extortion from those referred by his contacts in India. His victims included rich doctors, real estate agents, business magnets, jewellers, actors from Hindi and Kannada films, mining barons, politicians and commodity merchants.
“Pujari’s modus operandi was to use Skype and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) for making calls from his hideouts abroad to contact potential victims and threaten them to cough up the ransom or face death in a movie style,” added the statement.
According to reports in Vijayavani Kannada news daily, around 97 cases were registered against Ravi Poojari, out of which, 39 are from Bangalore, 36 from Mangalore, 11 from Udupi and one each from Mysore, Hubli, Dharwad, Kolar and Shivamogga districts.
Ravi Poojari belongs to Malpe, Udupi District. His former name was Raviprakash Poojari and he lived in Om Namah Shivaya Nilaya near Nergi Saraswati Mandir, Malpe, Udupi District. This house was sold a few years ago. His father Surya Poojari died five years ago. Mother Sushila Poojari lives with his sister in Delhi. Ravi Poojari has three siblings. Two sisters live in Delhi and one sibling is no more.
Poojari is a great cricket lover. A cricket tournament was held on December 31, 2018, in Africa and Ravi Poojari had gone to watch it. The Indian investigating agencies could get his photos and thus could confirm that he was hiding in Senegal.
