New twist to Kochi firing case as ‘underworld don’ rings up news channel

Kochi: Deepening the mystery surrounding the firing incident at the luxury beauty salon owned by the controversial actress Leena Maria Paul here last week, a person, claiming to be Mumbai underworld gangster Ravi Pujari, called up a Malayalam new channel on Wednesday and issued a threat to assassinate Leena’s partner if she failed to return the Rs 25 crore extracted from several investors.

Though he staked claimed to the firing episode, the caller refused to divulge details about the actor-businesswoman’s partner, the main target.

Before the firing incident, Leena had received a call from the same number. Both were internet calls, confirmed to be made by the same person, that were later traced to a South Korean IP address.

“Those who opened fire at the salon are my men. Our target is to get the money siphoned off by Leena back. Nothing will happen to her even if she refuses to pay up, but we will finish off the person who is hiding behind the curtain,” the caller was quoted as saying by the channel.

The police have not received any substantial evidence to establish the involvement Pujari in the incident. However, there are clear indications that the person making the ransom calls has been getting help locally. Investigators suspect that It was through them the caller obtained Leena’s phone number and details of her beauty salon. Presumably, the local gang had been keeping track on her movements as well.

Murky deals

The entire episode is suspected to be a fallout of rivalry linked to clandestine financial dealings. The police teams are trying to identify persons with whom Leena had personal enmity. However, her reluctance to reveal details about her financial dealings is hampering the investigation, official sources said.

Leena’s companion Sukesh Chandrasekar, who was arrested by the Central Crime Branch from Kolkata in 2016, is currently serving a jail term in connection with a financial fraud. The police suspect that Leena is being targeted by the persons who were duped by him assuming that the amount wangled from them is with her.

The police have collected photos and videos of events held at her beauty salon ‘Nail Artistry’. From the photos and footages, featuring many prominent personalities in Kochi, it was evident that she has had high-level connections.

She was also into film financing, it was learnt.

Information on Leena sought

Meanwhile, the High Court has asked the government counsel to inform whether there was any criminal case pending against Leena. The directive was passed while considering a petition filed by the woman seeking police protection in the wake of firing at her beauty parlour.

In her petition, she stated that she had received threat calls from a person, who introduced himself as Ravi Pujari, demanding Rs 25 crore as ransom on November 3. She stopped attending phone calls after the person started calling her repeatedly. On December 10, a shadow police team contacted her and recorded her statements regarding the internet threat calls. After five days, two miscreants barged into her salon and fired shots. Though the police questioned her for about three hours following the incident, no action had been taken by them on her written complaint seeking protection, she said in her petition.

Sukesh's is Kochi visit under scanner

A special police team (SIT) looking into the attack on a beauty parlour in the heart of the city have gathered information that Leena and Sukesh had stayed at a Kochi resort for nearly three weeks, some three months ago. The police say the duo had checked into a private resort and had the Delhi police guarding them since Sukesh was under remand in the Tihar jail. The SIT also has information that the two had also stayed at two other resorts in Kochi. The team is trying to ascertain whether the gun attack was linked to transactions the couple had during those visits,

The resort's manager, Faisal, said three people had visited the resort to book the rooms for Leena and Sukesh saying they needed it for medical care in the city. “Three people had come to the resort and booked the room, saying it's for their boss. We were not told that he was an accused and that the police was with him.

“Both of them used to go out for about one-and-a half hours daily, saying it was for treatment. They used to receive quite a number of visitors.”