Mumbai The Bombay high court has refused to discharge hawala operator Ramesh Israni, booked by the Mumbai police crime branch for allegedly sending extortion money to gangster Ravi Pujari through a Dubai-based agent.
“From bare perusal of statement of witnesses, prima facie it clearly appears that the Appellant in fact aided and abetted the Organized Crime Syndicate headed by Mr. Ravi Pujari,” said the division bench of justice AS Gadkari and justice Milind Jadhav while rejecting discharge plea of Israni.
The judges took note of the fact that more than sufficient material available on record to proceed against the 71-year-old Ghatkopar resident for allegedly aiding and abetting the organised crime syndicate headed by Pujari.
The high court took note of the fact that Kamalsingh Vijaysingh Rajput, a co-accused in the case, had in his confessional statement revealed that he used to send money through Israni to Dubai under the instructions of Ravi Pujari. He had also stated that under instructions of the gangster, at-least on three occasions, he had contacted the hawala operator and sent money to the gangster through one Bhagwan Krushnani aka Ajay Dixit based in Dubai.
Israni was booked in the extortion case originally registered at Kandivali police station in 2017 and investigated by the crime branch. The case was registered after a property consultant, appointed by slum dwellers in Gorai to monitor the progress of their redevelopment scheme was being threatened by Ravi Pujari and some of his henchmen and asked to stay away from the project.
He had moved high court after a designated MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, 1999) court rejected his discharge plea on August 23, 2018. His counsel contended that the 71-year-old was an Angadia and it was his business to transmit money from one place to another. They said on instructions of Kamalsingh Rajput, he transferred certain amounts from Mumbai to Dubai and that he had no knowledge about underworld connections of the transfers and that he was aiding and abetting an organised crime syndicate by transferring the amounts.
High court, however, said that his defence of lack of knowledge about underworld connections of the transactions done by him cannot be accepted at pre-trial stage and rejected his plea for discharge. The court added that hawala transactions themselves are illegal acts and cannot be glorified as sought to be done by the accused.