In a complaint lodged with Adugodi police, Raju said that somebody claiming to be Pujari called him on his mobile phone around 2 pm on Friday. The caller spoke in Hindi and said that no cable operator was paying extortion money to Pujari’s local associates. Pujari, Raju added, demanded that all cable operators pay the extortion money, if they loved their lives and wanted “protection” from him.
Raju, however, didn’t believe the caller and retorted: “I don’t know who you are. I run my business legally and hence don’t need protection from anybody.” Raju also denied that he had ever given extortion money to any gangster. He said that his business was down ever since the launch of DTH service. Hence, he was not in a position to pay Pujari any sum.
But Pujari, Raju says, refused to believe him. He allegedly said: “If you are incurring losses, give up business and hand it over to me. I’ll run it.” To this, Raju said he was ready to hand over his business to Pujari. Subsequently, he asked him to come over and discuss the “proposal” with him.
“Do I have to come from Australia to meet you? You don’t know who I am. You’ll know it in a few days and I’ll teach you a lesson,” the gangster reportedly said. Police said they were investigating the matter. The phone number and its source are not known, they added.
