BENGALURU: Underworld don Ravi Pujari was flown to Bengaluru from South Africa, where he was arrested a day before, police said on Monday.

"A four-member Karnataka police team brought Pujari to Bengaluru in the wee hours of the day on an Air France flight via Paris after he was extradited from Senegal in Africa," City Crime Branch Deputy Commissioner of Police Kuldeep Jain told IANS here.

The police team was led by state Additional Director General of Police A K Pandey and Bengaluru joint commissioner of police Sandeep Patil, a police inspector and a constable.

"Pujari will be produced in the first Additional City Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) court in the city for judicial custody," Jain said.

Pujari was taken to an undisclosed place in the city from the international airport under tight security.

Pujari, who was arrested in South Africa last week, has 39 cases registered against him in Mangaluru and 37 cases in Bengaluru alone, apart from several other cases across the country including in Mumbai.

He was arrested in Senegal in West Africa in January 2019 but he jumped bail and fled to South Africa, where he was allegedly involved in drug trafficking and extortion racket.

Indian Intelligence sources said he was hiding under the identity of Anthony Fernandes, a Burkina Faso passport holder, and was located in a remote village of South Africa. On a tip-off from the Indian external intelligence agency, the Senegal police flew to South Africa last week and arrested the 52-year-old gangster. A team of officials, including senior IPS officers from his hometown Karnataka, where he is booked in 79 cases.