Click to play videoMumbai: Gangster Ravi Prakash Surya Pujari on Wednesday told CNN-IBN that it were his men who fired shots at Bollywood filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt's office on Wednesday morning.
Pujari, who spoke to CNN-IBN on the phone, said he had sent two men to kill Mahesh.
He alleged that Mahesh Bhatt is connected to Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Shakeel.
"Mahesh Bhatt works for Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Shakeel and launders their money. He travels overseas to meet them and that is why I targeted him," said Pujari.
"If I was scared of the police, I would not take responsibility for my actions. Why should I be scared? I am helping the country by trying to eliminate those linked with Dawood and Shakeel, who were responsible for the Mumbai blasts. I am doing the work the police should be doing. If we had found Mahesh Bhatt we would have killed him, not for money but for the nation," he added.
GANGSTER SPEAK |
"The reason why I wanted to kill Mahesh Bhatt is because he works for underworld dons Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Shakeel and launders money for them." |
"I think I am doing the police's work by killing people who are affiliated to Dawood and Chhota Shakeel. I am doing a great service to the nation by killing such people." |
"I did not give anyone a contract. I have a big gang, I assigned the job to two of my boys to kill him. But he was not there in the office, so they just fired at the office and left." |
Pujari, who claimed that he was in Australia, said that dons like Dawood and Shakeel were traitors and deserved to die.
On Wednesday morning, an unidentified man fled after firing shots inside Mahesh's office in Juhu, Mumbai.
The man entered the office at 1210 hrs IST, held a gun to Bhatt's accountant Gilbert's head and asked for "the boss".
"When he was told that there was no one there, he got angry and fired twice at the ground near the door and then ran away on his motorbike," said Mahesh's brother and producer Mukesh Bhatt from Dubai.
The security guard of the building in which Bhatt's office is located, Siddik Khan, also saw the would-be attacker and in fact even spoke to him.
"He was parking his motorbike and I told him that bike's were not allowed in the parking lot. But, he didn't listen to me, parked his bike and went on to Mr Bhatt's office on the fourth floor."
Nobody was hurt in the incident. Mumbai Police officials, including encounter specialist Pradeep Sawant and filmmaker Ashok Pandit, rushed to the office after the incident.
"I was at the Juhu police station for some work when Mahesh called me and told me that there has been a shootout at his office. I informed the police and we rushed to the spot," said Pandit.
Mahesh Bhatt, however, chose to look at the entire incident philosophically. "I guess the people of India can tell you better what should be done if someone speaks for the downtrodden people of the society and that someone is threatened by gangsters," he said.
The fact that this could be an underworld reminder to pay up cannot be ruled out, said police officials.
When Mahesh's Gangster was released, there was some talk that the film was based on the life of real life don Abu salem.
Who is Ravi Pujari? |
|
 Pujari started out with a small gang led by Srikant Desai in Andheri. |
| After Desai was killed in an encounter, Pujari took over the gang. |
| He soon moved towards the Chhota Rajan gang and was close to Guru Satam, a close Rajan aide. |
| However, after the Satam-Rajan team split, Pujari joined Satam. It is said that Pujari was responsible for the their split. |
| Pujari is said to have tipped of Chhota Shakeel about Rajan, when Shakeel ordered a shootout on Rajan in 2000. |
| He now runs his own gang and his main areas of operation are Sahar, Andheri and Vile Parle. |
In fact, Salem had even asked for a stay on the release of the movie.
Mahesh and Mukesh may not make movies with mammoth budgets like Karan Johar and Sanjay Leela Bhansali, but their movies generate a lot of revenue.
Mahesh's Gangster and Kalyug in particular have been extremely successful.
However, these are all speculations and will be confirmed only when the police releases a statement.
"Mahesh has never received any threats from the underworld or any extortion threats and is in a state of shock that something like this would happen," said Pandit.
Nonetheless, in Mahesh's own words, he is a bit of a loudmouth and likes to take a vehement stand on issues and someone may want to get back at him over some such issue.
On the basis of descriptions given by the accountant Gilbert and the rest of the staff in the office, the police are drawing a sketch of the gunman.
They are also questioning the staff about the kind of clothes that the man was wearing and the kind of language that he was using.
A ballistic report on the bullets and fingerprints will make it easier for the police to identify the man.
Bollywood-Underworld Nexus |
| In 2005 Salman Khan's nexus with the underworld was questioned when transcripts of his alleged conversation with Aishwarya Rai were released, wherein Khan flaunted his links with Dawood Ibrahim. |
| In January 2003 diamond merchant Bharat Shah was arrested for being involved in the transfer of underworld money to finance the film Chori Chori Chupke Chupke. Preity Zinta became the "hero" of the case when she stood by her recorded statement of having received threat calls, while other actors turned hostile. |
| In 2001 Mahesh Manjrekar was questioned for his film Vaastav, which was reportedly financed by Chhota Rajan's brother. |
| In 2000, soon after the release of his film, Kaho Naa Pyar Hai, filmmaker Rakesh Roshan was fired at by assassins but he managed to flee. The attack was reportedly the handiwork of Abu Salem to scare Roshan into surrendering the overseas rights of the film. |
| In 1997 T-series Gulshan Kumar, was shot dead by the members of the Abu Salem gang. Music composer Nadeem Khan was allegedly involved in the murder. |
| In the same year, filmmaker Rajiv Rai was attacked by five gangsters for allegedly refusing to give away overseas rights of his film Gupt. Following the incident, Rai shifted base to London. |
| In 1993, actor Sanjay Dutt was arrested for possessing an illegal AK-47 rifle and for having links with the underworld. In 2002, the Mumbai police tapped into the actor's conversation with gangster Chhota Shakeel. |
| Actor Sanjay Dutt's alleged conversation with Chotta Shakeel which was recorded by the Mumbai Police has references to the actor having bought a T-shirt for him from Dubai. |
| A few months ago audio visual footage (approximately 10 to 15 years old) of Govinda with the members of D-company was aired on TV. The actor maintained that he had no links with the mob. |
| Upcoming starlets like Mandakini and Monica Bedi have been known to have close associations with Dawood Ibrahim and Abu Salem respectively. |
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