The Ahmedabad Crime Branch on Monday took the custody of gangster Ravi Pujari from a Bengaluru jail in connection with a 2017 shooting case, in which a municipal councillor of Borsad town of Anand district in Gujarat was attacked allegedly at his behest, officials said. Around 20 criminal cases, including of extortion and attempt to murder, were registered against Pujari in Gujarat alone, said Deputy Commissioner of Police, Crime, Chaitanya Mandlik.
Of these, the Ahmedabad Crime Branch is investigating 14 cases, he said. Pujari was lodged in a jail in Bengaluru following his extradition to India from Senegal last year. "We had sought his custody to investigate his role in the 2017 shooting case in Borsad town," said Mandlik.
Another official said a court in Bengaluru had remanded Pujari into the custody of the crime branch for 30 days. He added that Pujari will be produced before a magistrate in Borsad in the coming days. The incident happened on January 13, 2017, when three rounds were fired at independent councillor of Borsad municipality Pragnesh Patel from a point-blank range in Borsad by two assailants, who were later nabbed by the Gujarat police along with a third accomplice.
Patel, who was injured in the attack, eventually recovered. Pujari had taken the responsibility of the attack.
Incidentally, a few days after Patel was attacked, Congress MLA from Anklav in Anand district Amit Chavda, who is now the Gujarat Congress president, filed a complaint claiming Pujari had threatened him over the phone.
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