A city woman who was detained at the international airport in Mumbai on suspicion of being the wife of fugitive gangster Ravi Pujari has been released after it turned out to be a case of mistaken identity, the police said on Wednesday.
The woman, a resident of suburban Borivali who was accompanied by her son, was detained for nearly 28 hours before being let off around midnight on Tuesday night. Sridevi Santosh Pujari and her son Aryan were allowed to go after Mangalore Police questioned them and recorded their statements. She is not the person Mangalore Police were looking for," said a police officer.
Sridevi Pujari was intercepted at the airport on Monday at about 8 pm by immigration authorities as a Look-out Circular with the same name had been issued by the Mangalore police in an extortion case filed in 2012.
The woman and her son were scheduled to take a flight to Abu Dhabi, the police said. LOC is usually issued to trace absconding criminals. As per Mangalore Police records, Ravi Pujari and his wife Sridevi are wanted in the extortion case. Incidentally, Ravi Pujari's son's name is also Aryan.
The Mangalore police were alerted and the duo was handed over to Sahar Airport Police station. A team of the Mangalore police reached Mumbai on Tuesday and questioned the duo to ascertain f they were related to Pujari, said to be based overseas.
Mumbai Crime Branch had yesterday itself said it was a case of mistaken identity and the detained woman is not the wife of the underworld don, who was recently in news for plotting to target Bollywood personalities.
"The Mangalore team questioned the two only to find that the judgement of the Mumbai police was right. Once they were satisfied (about her real identity), they allowed the lady and her son to go home," the officer added.
The duo was detained for over 24 hours after taking permission from a court, the police said. As per norms, if a citizen is detained for more than 24 hours without court permission, it would be deemed as illegal.
According to Mumbai police records, Pujari's wife's name is Padma, who was arrested in a fake passport case in 2005. She was released on bail after a month, but she fled the country within six months after managing to obtain another passport in the name of Sridevi Santosh Pujari.
