Underworld don Hemant Pujari arrested in Malaysia, says Mumbai Police officer

Underworld don Hemant Pujari has been arrested in Malaysia, a Mumbai Police officer said. The same officer confirmed that Pujari is in the custody of the Malaysian police. It is not yet clear whether he was caught in a local case there or on the basis of a Red Corner Notice issued to Interpol at the request of the Government of India.

Pujari's extortion calls had been silent for several years, and several investigating agencies had therefore assumed he was dead. The officer who had earlier arrested him in Mumbai said Pujari was seriously injured in an accident in South Africa a few years ago. He was paralysed and remained bedridden for a long time. That was why his extortion calls in Mumbai had stopped.

In the past six months, he made threatening calls to a number of people in Karnataka and Mumbai. The agencies became alert again and suspected that he might be alive. Karnataka Police have also arrested some members of his family in the past few weeks. It is said that the police began searching for his whereabouts after questioning the family. It has now emerged that he has been caught in Malaysia.

Hemant Pujari was once among the key men of the Chhota Rajan gang. His shooters were so dangerous that it is often said they were the most dangerous in Mumbai's underworld after those of the Arun Gawli gang. He remained in the Chhota Rajan gang until September 2000. That year, Rajan was targeted in a shooting in Bangkok. Rajan survived, but his close aide Rohit Verma was killed.

After the Bangkok shooting, the gang split. Several associates broke away and formed their own gangs. Pujari was one of them. About two and a half decades ago, he was arrested from the Nirmal Nagar area in Khar, Mumbai. He got bail a few days later and fled abroad on a forged passport. More than two dozen cases are registered against him in Mumbai. He had also fired in Mumbai at some of the accused in the 1993 bomb blasts case who were out on bail.