Prasad Pujari Brought Back To India: Notorious gangster Prasad Vitthal Pujari was brought back to India during the early hours of Saturday by Mumbai Police after being deported by China, officials said.
#WATCH | Maharashtra: Gangster Prasad Pujari brought to Mumbai from China by the Mumbai Crime Branch officials.
— ANI (@ANI) March 22, 2024
(Visuals from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport) pic.twitter.com/tDXIqtrt8J
Pujari's deportation is being billed as the first-ever extradition of a fugitive by China. He was arrested in February 2023 after a Interpol notice was issued against him. The 44-year-old, originally a resident of Mumbai's Vikhroli suburb, was taken to a police lock-up following his arrival in the city.
A member of the Kumar Pillai gang, Pujari had been absconding for more than five years while being wanted for various offences, including kidnappings, death threats, and extortion rackets targeting builders and prominent people in Mumbai and other places.
His name had also figured in the failed assassination bid on a Shiv Sena activist. In 2020, Pujari, along with his mother Indira Vitthal Pujari and two others, had masterminded the abduction of a builder to extort Rs 10 lakh, but the Mumbai Police arrested Indira.
As per investigations, Pujari had been living on a temporary residence visa in China since 2008, news agency IANS said in a report. He was flown in to Mumbai by a team of the Mumbai Police Crime Branch.
(With inputs from agencies)