High court rejects pre-arrest protection of gangster Suresh Pujari associates in 2021 BJP Neta extortion case

ULHASNAGAR: In the case of gangster Suresh Pujari threatening BJP leader Amit Wadhwa with an extortion demand of Rs 1 crore in 2021, the High Court rejected the pre-arrest protection given to three associates of Pujari.

The High Court stated that police interrogation of Sushil Udasi, Pankaj Tilokani, and Umesh Rajpal is required.Four people took a loan of over Rs 2 crore from Wadhwa, who is the Chairman of Kalpataru Cooperative Credit Society. However, the money was not returned. When Wadhwa asked for the loan money back from the accused, they got Suresh Pujari to call Wadhwa.Wadhwa was threatened on the phone, being told not to ask for money from the four and to pay an additional ransom of Rs 1 crore to save his life.The incident dates back to 2021 when Wadhwa lodged a complaint at the local Ulhasnagar police station and presented the phone call records to the police. In these records, Suresh Pujari, on behalf of the four other accused—Sushil Udasi, Pankaj Tilokani, Umesh Rajpal, and Roshan Mahesh Makhija—threatened Wadhwa, demanded Rs 1 crore, and asked him to waive off the loan taken by these four and give them a no-dues certificate.

Based on this call record, the police registered a case of extortion against the four, besides Pujari, and handed over the investigation to the Central Crime Unit of the Crime Branch.During that time, many businessmen in Ulhasnagar city were threatened by don Suresh Pujari for money. A cable operator was also killed, and there was a shooting outside a builder's office.In such a situation, considering the seriousness of the case, the Central Crime Unit started searching for the four accused, all of whom absconded.

Makhija later got bail from the sessions court, while the remaining three accused received pre-arrest protection from the High Court.Wadhwa filed a petition in the court against the pre-arrest protection given to the four accused by the High Court.During the hearing on Wadhwa's plea this week, High Court Judge Nitin Sambre stated that the transcript produced by the complainant on record sufficiently justifies the allegations against the accused, which, in his opinion, warrant custodial interrogation.

Therefore, the pre-arrest protection given to them is rejected.However, the judge's order provides them with four weeks of temporary protection before arrest. After the High Court order, Wadhwa said the arrest of the three accused will help the police crack the trio's nexus with gangster Suresh Pujari, who he suspects provided information about many other businessmen from the city to Pujari for ransom.