‘Gangster Pujari made extortion calls to Gujarat Congress leaders, Mevani’

Over the past two years, at least ten Congress MLAs allegedly received threat calls from Pujari. The names include party chief Amit Chavda, Congress leaders Govabhai Rabari, Chandrikaben Baria, among others. Panchmahal MLA C K Raulji allegedly received threatening text massages from someone claiming to be Pujari.

The calls were traced to countries like Laos, Algeria, Bolivia, Thailand, Croatia, Bhutan and Turkey, sources said. Pratik Sinha, who runs web portal Alt News that exposes fake news and messages, had also allegedly received threat calls from a person claiming to be Ravi Pujari.
Pujari had told Sinha to stop writing or else he would be shot dead.

Police said, most were voice over internet protocol (VOIP) calls in majority of the cases and that is why finding Pujari’s exact location was difficult. Pujari is alleged to have made extortion calls to Ahmedabad-based builder Paresh Patel and Arvind Patel from Anand in 2016. The Crime Branch was handed over the probe which led them to Pune where they busted an international drug racket. They found that there was a connection between Pujari and Vicky Goswami, the husband of actress Mamta Kulkarni.

Goswami is alleged to have been involved in several drug trafficking cases in India and abroad. This revelation led the police to unearth over 1,300 kg banned Ephedrine worth Rs 270 crore case in Ahmedabad.