Mumbai: Man gets gangster to threaten jeweller over Rs 16 crore dispute, held

MUMBAI: While gangster Ravi Pujari’s extortion business has most likely wrapped up with his arrest and subsequent deportation from Senegal last month, another Pujari seems to be getting active in Mumbai. Believed to be based in Singapore, Prasad Pujari is a former associate of gangster Kumar Pillai.
On Saturday, a 59-year-old businessman from south Mumbai, Popatlal Porwal, was arrested for getting Prasad Pujari to call up Kalbadevi jeweller and threaten him.Porwal and the jeweller have a financial dispute, and he has claimed that he had approached the gangster only after the police refused to intervene as the case is a “civil” one.
An officer of the crime branch’s anti-extortion cell, which arrested Porwal, said that the accused and the complainant are partners in two or three firms. A source said that Porwal also runs a hawala racket and that the complainant had given him a loan of Rs 16 crore for business.
However, Porwal lost the money in trading on the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX). As the name suggests, MCX is an exchange where commodity derivatives (futures and options) like gold, other metals and select agricultural produce are traded.
“Due to the volatile market. Porwal reportedly incurred losses. But he has claimed that it is the complainant who owe him Rs 16 crore,” added the officer. The source said that Porwal lodged a complaint of cheating against the complainant at LT Marg police but the case was closed as the cops told him that it was a civil matter and it needs to be settled in a civil court.
Following this, Porwal, through a common friend, approached Prasad Pujari. The officer said, “Pujari then started calling and threatening the complainant with dire consequences to settle the dispute. The gangster also demanded a Rs 4 crore cut and threatened to bump off the jeweller.”
The police said that Prasad Pujari used to be a lesserknown criminal from Vikhroli who started working for the Kumar Pillai gang and manage his activities. After Pillai’s arrest in 2016 in Singapore, reports said that Prasad Pujari had started outsourcing his operations for killings and extortions.