MUMBAI: The Mumbai Police have brought back notorious gangster Prasad Vitthal Poojary -- who was arrested in February 2023 following an Interpol notice -- in what is a first-ever deportation of a wanted fugitive by China, officials said here on Saturday.
A resident of the Vikhroli suburb in Mumbai, Poojary (44), surrounded by a team of Mumbai Police officers, arrived here in an early morning flight. He was lodged in a police lockup before being placed under formal arrest by the Crime Branch’s Anti-Extortion Cell.
Poojary was later produced before a special court of Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), which remanded him to 14-day police custody.
Poojary was living in China and Hong Kong for the past 20 years using various aliases like Subhash, Siddharth Shetty, Sid, Johny, etc.
From his hideouts, he used to run an extortion racket using international SIM cards and telephone numbers, targeting politicians, businessmen, film personalities, including producers-directors, and other celebs. He had at least eight cases of major crimes lodged against him at various police stations in Mumbai, the police said.
A resident of Tagore Nagar in the Vikhroli suburb, Poojary started his gangland career with the gangs of Kumar Pillai and Chhota Rajan Nikhalje (both deported) nearly three decades ago.
However, after differences cropped up with them, he separated to form his independent ‘mafia company’ which aimed at big fish, threatening them to extract big money, mostly in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, and Thane regions.
At one point in 2019, he was involved in firing at Shiv Sena leader Chandrakant Jadhav, who escaped alive, but it served to increase his dread among the rich and the powerful people.
Following a tip-off by Interpol and acting on a Red Corner Notice of 2012, Poojary was nabbed in Hong Kong in February 2023 on charges of holding a fake passport.
Married to a Chinese woman with a child, Poojary was planning to board a flight from Hong Kong to Shenzhen at the time of his arrest.
As soon as the Mumbai Police learnt about his arrest, it initiated deportation/extradition proceedings against Poojary last year, and finally managed to bring him back after a year’s efforts.
In 2020, the Mumbai Police arrested Poojary's mother, Indira Vitthal Poojary, for her alleged involvement in the abduction-cum-extortion case of a Vikhroli builder to extract Rs 10 lakh, and running his rackets by proxy.
After Kumar Pillai's extradition by Singapore, Poojary took over his business territory and carried out shootouts, kidnapping, attempts to murder, issuing death threats, and running extortion rackets targeting prominent personalities in and around Mumbai.