Ex-aide of Ravi Pujari among 3 held for bid on councillor's

A former henchman of gangster Ravi Pujari, believed to be based abroad, was among three persons arrested today for their alleged role in a bid on the life of an independent councillor of Borsad municipality in Anand district, police said.
"In a joint operation, Anand police and the Gujarat Anti Terrorism Squad apprehended Suresh Pillai (ex aide of Pujari), Ghanshyam Giri and Sajid Momin," said Anand SP Saurabh Singh who addressed a joint press conference here with ATS SP Himanshu Shukla.
The arrests were made from different parts of the state.
The incident happened on January 13 when three rounds were fired at councillor Pragnesh Patel from a point blank range in Borsad, allegedly by Pillai.

Pragnesh is currently undergoing treatment at a Vadodara-based hospital.
As per preliminary information, Pillai was offered Rs 25 lakh by one Chandresh Patel for the contract to kill his business rival, Pragnesh.

"Both Chandresh and Pragnesh were at loggerheads since long due to some personal as well as business reasons. Chandresh was also angry because his mother lost elections against Pragnesh in recent municipality polls in Borsad," said Singh.
Shukla said Pillai had a chequered past and came out of jail a few months back.
"He once used to work for Ravi Pujari. After meeting Chandresh, Pillai agreed to kill Pragnesh for Rs 25 lakh. Pillai took help of Momin and Giri to carry out the task," said Shukla.

According to Shukla, though Pujari called up Pragnesh's brother claiming the responsibility for the attack, the underworld don was not directly involved in carrying out the hit.
"When Pujari learnt about the firing by his former henchman, he called up Pillai and told him that he want to take up the responsibility on his head. It was Pujari's strategy to instill fear among people by establishing that he can do such things. Otherwise, Pujari was not directly involved in the act," said Shukla.
He said efforts are on to nab Chandresh who is believed to have fled outside India after the incident.

Incidentally, a few days after Pragnesh was attacked, Congress MLA from Borsad Amit Chavda filed a complaint claiming that Pujari had threatened him over phone.
"It is very likely that it was Pujari who called Chavda. It must be Pujari's strategy to take credit of what Pillai did so people start fearing him. In recent past, at least four persons from Gujarat had received such threat calls from Pujari," said Shukla.