Ravi Pujari

Some Lesser Known Facts About Ravi Pujari

• Ravi Pujari moved to Mumbai as a school dropout and started a tea stall in Andheri.

• In the 1980s, Ravi Pujari entered into the crime industry, Ravi Pujari spent most of his time in Mumbai in Dombivali.

• Ravi Pujari was noticed by gangster Chhota Rajan after killing rival Bala Zalte in the 1980s which started his association with the underworld industry in Mumbai.

• After working with Chhota Rajan for a little while, Pujari wanted to attain the title of a ‘Hindu don’ or a ‘patriotic don’ just like Chotta Rajan.

• Pujari started working alongside Dawood Ibrahim. He also took Rajan’s side after the Dawood gang split on communal lines following the 1993 Mumbai blasts.

• In the early 2000s, Ravi Pujari formed her own gang

• Ravi Pujari started a restaurant chain called ‘Namaste India’ with nine outlets across several West African countries. He also provided drinking water pumps in various rural areas affected by water scarcity. During Navratri, he would give clothes to the poor people in Senegal, West Africa.

• Ravi was also featured in local newspapers of Senegal, West Africa for his charitable work.

• Ravi Pujari has been involved in underworld activities in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Gujarat, and other states.

• From 2009 to 2013, Pujari threatened many Bollywood actors and some of them include Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, Karan Johar, and Rakesh Roshan.

• In 2016, over the controversy of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) protests, Ravi Pujari threatened to kill the Islamist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

• In 2017, Ravi Pujari threatened the Indian actor Shah Rukh Khan for his relationship with Karim Morani who is a friend and business partner of the actor.

• In 2018, Pujari was believed to be hiding in Australia and held an Australian passport. He often called up the police claiming to have targeted people close to Dawood or Chhota Shakeel.

• From 2017-2019, Ravi Pujari was said to have made death threats to various students and MLAs all over the country.

• On 21 January 2019, Pujari was arrested from a barber shop in Dakar, Senegal where he was living with his family under the fake name of Anthony Fernandes. He had later escaped to South Africa while on local bail in Senegal.

• He was arrested in a joint South African-Senegalese operation in South Africa in February 2020.

• In 2023, Ravi arrived at the airport from a flight from the United Arab Emirates, he was caught by immigration officials and handed over to Thane Crime Branch. He was arrested for demanding extortion of Rs 10 crore from Mahendra Pamnani of Roma Builders in 2017.