Mumbai, Nov 19: An interrogation of the 13 gang members of two factions of fugitive gangster Ravi Pujari revealed that Bollywood king Shah Rukh Khan and directors Mahesh Bhatt and Farah Khan were on his radar.
Mahesh Bhatt was also under the scanner for the past two months. Having made these arrests, the Mumbai police also claims to have cracked the case of shooting outside the residence of Bollywood fim producer-brothers Karim and Ali Morani.
A police officer said that Ravi Pujari had ordered his men to open fire outside actor Shah Rukh Khan's office and director Farah Khan's residence as part of an extortion bid. Police also said the gang had planned to shoot at producer Mahesh Bhatt, so as to create panic in the film industry.
"The accused had done recces of the residence of director Farah Khan and the office of Red Chillies owned by film actor Shahrukh Khan," said additional commissioner of police (Crime) K M M Prasanna. He added, "The accused had checked out the entry points and exits at both the places and were aware about the numbers of guards and the places where they were posted."
The interrogation of the arrested accused revealed that the address of Shahrukh's office and Farah's residence had been given to them by one Obaid Radiowala from New Jersey, who is also one of the wanted accused in Bhatt's case.
Thirteen gang members were on Monday arrested outside Bhatt's office in Khar before they could execute their plan.
Ravi Pujari, a notorious criminal from coastal Karnataka, started as a small-town gangster in Andheri, Mumbai. He later joined Chota Rajan's gang. He moved to Dubai in the late 1990s and extorted money from builders and hoteliers. They parted ways after Dawood attempted to kill Rajan in 2000. Pujari is believed to have been hiding in Australia now and calls the police sometimes, claiming to have targetted people close to Dawood Ibrahim and his aide Chhota Shakeel.
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