Gangster Prasad Pujari brought back to India from China; placed under arrest by Mumbai cops

Mumbai: In the first instance of deportation/extradition from China, gangster Prasad Pujari was brought to Mumbai on Saturday.

Pujari, who is in his forties, has been placed under arrest by the Crime Branch of Mumbai Police, which would take the investigations ahead.

The accused Prasad Pujari alias Subhash Vitthal Pujari alias Siddharth Shetty alias Side alias Johny had been staying in China and Hong Kong.

Over the years, he had worked for the gangs controlled by Kumar Pillai and Chhota Rajan.

A resident of Tagore Nagar in Vikhroli, he had fled India years ago and had been staying in China.

From Hong Kong and China, he had carried out extortion and threatened Indian businessmen and film personalities using international SIM cards.

Following a tip-off by the Interpol, Pujari was arrested in March last year in Hong Kong on the charges of possessing a fake passport. He was held when he was preparing to board a flight from Hong Kong to Shenzhen.

Pujari, who is married to a Chinese national, was residing in Shenzhen with his wife and kid at the time of his arrest.

After his arrest, the Mumbai police initiated the process of deportation/extradition proceedings against him.

Pujari is allegedly involved in eight serious cases in Mumbai, including firing, extortion and murder.

In 2020, the Mumbai police's crime branch arrested Pujari's mother Indira Pujari for her alleged involvement in the extortion of a builder from Vikhroli.

Pujari's name came up in the case of firing on Shiv Sena worker Chandrakant Jadhav, who was living in the Vikhroli area, in December 2019. He was apprehended by authorities in Hong Kong in February 2023.

After being deported from China, he landed at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai past midnight.

The Anti-Extortion Cell of the Crime Branch took his custody.