Ten members of the gang of underworld don, Ravi Pujari who has been a fugitive for quite some time now were sentenced to five years in jail by Mumbai court for allegedly plotting to kill producer-director Mahesh Bhatt and his family. The convicts had reportedly hatched a plan to murder the director in 2014 on Pujari’s orders.

Ishrat Shaikh, 44, Mohmad Khan, 43, Aazim Khan, 22, Ashfak Sayyed, 28, Asif Khan, 31, Shahnawaz Shaikh, 39, Firoz Shayyed, 33, Shabbir Shaikh, 26, Rahim Khan, 46 and Mohmmad Anis Merchant, 38, were convicted under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act. Shridhar Bhosle, the presiding judge found the ten men guilty and charged them under section 120B of the IPC (criminal conspiracy) and under the Arms Act. Reportedly, one of the prime accused in the case, Yusuf Bachkana was acquitted by the court.

According to the prosecution, the conspiracy started when one of the members of the gang had a tiff with the Morani Brothers with regards to the movie Happy New Year which they were producing. Obaid Merchant, the member of the gang wanted the international rights of the film.

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Pujari who is absconding wanted to revive his foothold in Mumbai by targeting Bhatt and his brother Mukesh. According to Mahesh Bhatt, Pujari had been conspiring to kill him since 2006 and he said that he was fired at in the same year by the gangster’s men outside his office. In 2007, when his elder daughter Pooja Bhatt’s movie Dhokha released he started getting death threats once again. He claimed that he received the threat on the telephone while he and his daughter Pooja were in their office.

Mahesh has not directed any film post the Sanjay Dutt, Jackie Shroff and Manisha Koirala starrer Kartoos which released in 1999. However, he recently came back to television when he started directing the serial Naamkaran which started in 2016.