Remand of Ravi Pujari extended

The remand of Ravi Pujari, the gangster who was arrested by the Crime Branch early this year in connection with the Kochi beauty parlour shooting case, was further extended by a trial court here on Tuesday.

C. Deepu, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, extended the remand of the accused till June 8, on an application filed by the Crime Branch.

The Crime Branch case is that the accused allegedly hired two persons in 2018 to open fire outside the beauty parlour run by actor Leena Maria Paul in Panampilly Nagar. The police had arrested two persons and recovered arms and ammunition from them.

The police case was that the firing was planed by the accused to terrorise the actor and to extort money from her. The accused had earlier allegedly tried to intimidate the actor through phone calls. However, the actor refused to budge, say the police.

Pujari is currently housed at the Parappana Agrahara Central Prison in Bengaluru after he was extradited from South Africa sometime ago.

The Ernakulam court held the proceedings online. The court will hear the application of the Crime Branch for the custody of the accused on May 31.