Wannabe gangster Ravi Poojari, hailing from Karnataka but with his base in Mumbai, married Padma, a Punjabi. When Poojari escaped to Bangkok, Padma along with her three children continued staying at the Shere-Punjab colony in Andheri East in the metro. According to the Crime Branch officers who arrested Padma in a case of passport forgery, Poojari had no top lieutenants in the city who could launder his money in Mumbai and in south-east Asian cities.

Inspector Milind Khetale of the Crime Branch says, “We have found in our investigations that Padma used to help her husband in his operations and manage his funds and criminal activities.” A fact that the cops remained unaware of until she managed to procure a passport on a forged documents and jump bail.

Padma,a well-educated woman, not only managed her husband’s financial affairs when he was on the run, but she also ensured that Poojari remained in the business. Of course, her lawyer, Shyam Keswani, denied that she stood in for her husband. “There is no truth in the cops’ claims,” he insisted. However, once arrested and produced in court, Padma came under the cops’ scanner and, under intense pressure to come clean, had no option but to flee the country. There is now an Interpol red-corner notice out against her name.

Padma is the second mob moll flagged with a red-corner notice. Before her, Sameera Jumaani, former wife of Abu Salem, had a notice pending against her since 1993, when soon after the serial blasts in Mumbai, she and her husband escaped to Dubai.

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