Three Pujari men held for extortion

Thane crime branch arrested three men of the Suresh Pujari gang in connection with alleged extortion and attempt to murder. The accused have been identified as Yash alias Pandya alias Ramesh Bhimrav Patil( 40),Vijay Prakash Sundar Pujari( 43) and Dayanand Narayan Amin alias Pujari( 62).

According to Param Bir Singh, Commissioner of Police, Thane, “The trio used to threaten builders and businessmen. Three pistols have been recovered from Ramesh Bhimrao Patil.” Ashutosh Dumbre, Joint Commissioner of Police (crime),Thane, said, “Pujari’s gang used to extort money from builders, businessmen, angadias and bigwigs in Thane, Dombivali, Ulhasnagar, Kalyan and Badlapur.

The accused would repeatedly call up the victims through internet calling from unknown numbers and would threaten them to give a sum of Rs two crore. If the victims would not pay the extortion amount, then the henchmen would hatch a plan to shoot the victims.”

The arrested accused were wanted in a murder case of a cable operator who was gunned down by the trio on September 11, 2015 in Ulhasnagar.

The trio accused had opened fired two rounds in broad daylight at builder Sumit Chakraborty’s office in Ulhasnagar on July 11.Chakraborty is the President of Ulhasnagar Trade Association. Luckily, Chakraborty was not present at his office when the incident took place “During investigation, it was also found that the accused were involved in hawala transactions and would use the extortion amount for purchasing arms,” said Dumbre. The accused have been remanded to further police custody until September 29.