Gangster Ravi Pujari not found guilty in the 1999 murder case by a special court

New Delhi (India) May 28: Gangster Ravi Pujari was found not guilty by a special court on Tuesday in a case involving the 1999 murder of a suspected member of the gang of fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.

Judge A M Patil found Ravi Pujari not guilty in the case filed against him under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) section for murder and the sections of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). The reasoned order has not yet been made public.

On September 2, 1999, criminal Chhota Rajan's men shot and killed Anil Sharma, a suspected member of the Dawood Ibrahim gang, in the Andheri area.

The prosecution claims that the rivalry between the Dawood and Rajan gangs and an organised crime structure were responsible for Sharma's murder.

In 2000, a charge sheet was filed against eight defendants and was submitted to the special MCOCA court after the completion of the investigations.

In 2002, two more defendants were charged. The CBI also filed chargesheet against Rajan and Ravi Poojari in 2020.

Rajan was accused of organising a criminal conspiracy with Ravi Poojari and Gurunath Satam. A witness claimed that Anil Sharma felt threatened by the Chhota Rajan Gang.

According to Sharma’s driver, an attacker had told Sharma, "this is the result of keeping enmity with Nana". However, he became hostile during Rajan's co-accused's trial.

The court has said that the prosecution did not provide or gather relevant proof against Rajan with an exception of the driver's statements.

According to CBI investigations, gangster Chhota Rajan ordered Sharma's murder in revenge for the 1992 JJ Hospital shootout, which was carried out by Dawood's men in response to murder of his brother-in-law, Ibrahim Parkar by the Arun Gawli gang.

The CBI claims that Rajan gave Pujari the work to kill the Dawood gang members who were involved in the shootout, which led to Sharma's death. In December 2022, Rajan was dismissed from the case for lack of "cogent evidence.”

Due to a lack of evidence, the court discharged 11 of the case's defendants. Chhota Rajan who was also charged with involvement in the murder, was dismissed from the case because the court did not have enough proof to prove that Rajan was involved in the plan to kill Sharma.

Aadrika Tayal