In a significant stride, Mumbai Crime Branch authorities have effectively extradited sought-after outlaw and leader of the Kumar Pillai Gang, Prasad Pujari, from China. Pujari, implicated in numerous homicide and coercion incidents, was apprehended in Hong Kong the previous year. He had absconded from India in 2005.
Reports suggest that Pujari was repatriated to India from China in the early hours of Saturday. The criminal was apprehended by Mumbai law enforcement at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport around 2.00 am to 2.30 am shortly after his arrival at the airport, as relayed by Deputy Commissioner of Police Datta Nalavade.
The Mumbai Police had commenced the procedural formalities with Chinese authorities regarding Pujari’s extradition. The criminal’s repatriation is deemed a significant triumph for the Mumbai Police, given his involvement in over 15 criminal litigations, encompassing extortion, homicide, and attempted homicide, filed in Mumbai and Thane districts.
During his concealment in China, Prasad Pujari had entered into matrimony with a Chinese national for his protection and had been residing in the Luohu District of Shenzhen City. Prasad also shares parenthood with a four-year-old offspring from his Chinese spouse. Upon absconding to China, Pujari was granted a provisional visa for his residency in the nation in March 2008, which lapsed in March 2012. In 2020, the Mumbai Crime Branch apprehended the gangster’s mother, Indira Vithal Pujari, in connection with a coercion incident.
Per law enforcement, Indira (62) and two other accomplices were accused of soliciting a ransom of Rs 10 lakh from a Mumbai-based constructor. The two apprehended suspects were identified as Sunil Angane (56) and Sukesh Kumar (28). Charges were pressed under pertinent sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime (MCOC) Act.
Pujari’s involvement surfaced in the assault on Shiv Sena activist Chandrakant Jadhav on December 19, 2019, in the Vikhroli locality. Jadhav narrowly escaped the bullet and survived the ordeal.
Pujari was detained by Chinese authorities upon his arrival from Hong Kong in March 2023.
