BENGALURU/ MUMBAI/ AHMEDABAD: Fugitive gangster Ravi Pujari, wanted in over 200 cases in India, was picked up from a barber shop in the Senegalese capital, Dakar , on January 21, said the Karnataka chief minister's office on Friday, citing a communique from the western African country. Three busloads of Senegalese policemen were deployed, the CMO said.The notorious extortionist, wanted in dozens of cases of threat calls to Bollywood stars, and even a prominent industrialist, has been on the run for years. He had an Interpol red corner notice against him. "We have confirmation of his arrest in Senegal and are preparing case documents for his extradition," said Mumbai's JCP (crime) Aushotosh Dumbre.Pujari was a partner in a chain of restaurants in several west African countries, including Guinea, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast . Karnataka police, who were on Pujari's trail when he was in Burkina, initially lost trace of him. Eventually, Pujari was traced in an operation involving India's intelligence agencies, Karnataka police and Gujarat ATS, besides African authorities.Karnataka has authorized its ADG (intelligence), Amar Pandey, to go through formalities to bring Pujari from Dakar. The Karnataka government had earlier tasked state police chief Neelamani N Raju and Pandey with getting Pujari arrested. Learning about Pujari's Senegalese base, Karnataka police alerted India's ambassador in Dakar, Rajeev Kumar, who took up the matter with Senegal's interior minister, Aly Ngouille Nbiaye, and director of judicial police, Seydou Bocar Yague.Gujarat ATS officials said Pujari had over the years made extortion calls to 75 businessmen, politicians, and professionals in the state. His latest call to a Gujarat cement baron, however, took him to the end of the line. Pujari, who has extorted over Rs 50 crore from his targets in Gujarat, demanded crores in protection money from the baron," an officer said. A senior ATS officer said the first step was to identify Pujari's children - one of his two daughters and son - who in the UK. "We then zeroed in on Pujari through the Gujarati community settled in Dakar," the officer said. But sources in Mumbai said that Pujari's children used to be in the UK years ago, where they were studying.