In the first verdict in Mumbai since his deportation in 2020, gangster Ravi Pujari was acquitted in a 26-year-old murder case by a special court on Tuesday. Pujari was extradited in 2020 from Senegal in West Africa, nearly 25 years after he left the country. He was first taken into custody by the Karnataka police on his return and was produced in Mumbai in 2021, where he had many pending cases.
In the case before the special court in Mumbai, Pujari and others were named as accused of the murder of one Anilkumar Sharma, an alleged member of the Dawood Ibrahim gang, at Andheri on September 2, 1999. The police had claimed that assailants had overtaken the vehicle Sharma was driving in and indiscriminately fired at him. He was rushed to the hospital by his driver and others but was declared dead on arrival.
The Mumbai police had then claimed that Sharma’s murder was due to gang rivalry, prevalent in the city at that time. Sharma was an accused out on bail in the 1992 shootout at J J Hospital, where an Arun Gawli gang member, Shailesh Haldankar, was killed as revenge for the murder of Dawood Ibrahim’s brother-in-law. The police had alleged that Sharma’s murder was planned by Chhota Rajan over his rivalry with the Dawood gang, and that Pujari was instructed to carry out the hit.
Rajan, Pujari and Guru Satam were named as absconding accused. Other members of the gang were arrested and put to trial but were acquitted of all charges in 2001 and 2002. Rajan was discharged from the case in 2022 with the court finding no evidence to show that he had ordered the murder. The CBI had taken over the probe.
The police had claimed that the deceased’s father had named him in his complaint, but his lawyers said that there was no evidence against him. Pujari’s defence was that there was no evidence to show that he was part of any conspiracy or had executed the attack through other gang members.
It was also submitted that other accused had previously been acquitted, and Rajan was discharged, hence it cannot be said that it was the handiwork of any gang. The court acquitted Pujari from charges of murder, criminal conspiracy of the Indian Penal Code and sections of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act. Pujari is currently lodged in a jail in Karnataka, where he is facing trial in pending cases by the local police there.