An official said on Friday that police had detained mobster Ravi Pujari’s assistant at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. Pujari was sought in connection with an extortion case.
According to a city crime branch officer, Vijay Purushottam Salvi, also known as Vijay Tambat, was detained by the police on Thursday after being charged under the Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act (MCOCA).
He said that Salvi, who had fled the country, had been charged with an offense under section 385 (extortion), as well as other pertinent articles of the Indian Penal Code and MCOCA, and that the police had issued a lookout notice for him.
When Salvi arrived at the airport on a trip from the UAE, immigration officers took him up and gave him to the Thane municipal police’s crime section, the official added.
Salvi was sought by the police in connection with an extortion case whereby mobster Ravi Pujari demanded Rs 10 crore from Mahendra Pamnani of Roma Builders over the phone in 2017. Additionally, they said that Pujari had dispatched sharpshooters to the builder’s office in Thane and had threatened to murder Pamnani.
The official said that the police had used weapons to apprehend the suspected defendant. According to him, Kasturba Marg, Samta Nagar, and Kasarwadavali police stations have attempted murder charges and crimes under the Arms Act filed against Salvi.