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Mangaluru, Feb 25: Notorious gangster Ravi Poojary,

who has been extradited to India from Senegal, has 34 cases registered against him within the city police commissionerate.

Now in Bengaluru police custody for interrogation in connection with several cases there, Poojary faces cases relating to murder, murder attempt, extortion and threat calls in the city, police sources said.

Sources said the city police are trying to get Pujari for interrogation though it would take a while as the court has allowed Bengaluru police to keep him in custody for questioning and evidence taking for 15 days.

Most of the cases in the city against him, 28 of them, are in connection with threat calls.

He had allegedly made threat calls in 2015 to the then state ministers B Ramanath Rai and Abhayachandra Jain, demanding immediate arrest of the accused in the murder of Bajrang Dal worker Prashanth Poojary.

All the cases against Poojary in the city were registered between 2007 and 2018.

Cases involving murder, death threats and shootouts are among the cases to be investigated, the sources said.

A total of 28 cases of death threat calls, one of murder, three of shootouts, one of abduction and a case of funding his associates lodged in prison are the crimes being probed by the city police.

The cases are now pending in courts at different stages of trial.

Cases of making threat calls to businessmen using his associates demanding protection money have been registered at Moodbidri, Kavoor, Kadri, Konaje, Barke and Urwa police stations.

Some of his associates were imprisoned in 2012 in connection with threat calls to a businessman from Kinnigoli.

The case relating to providing them money while in prison was also registered in the same year.

Pujari, wanted in many cases including extortion and murder in different parts of the country, including Karnataka and who had been on the run for over 15 years, was deported to Senegal following his arrest and later extradited

He had jumped bail in Senegal last year after being arrested there.

New Delhi, Mar 19: Senior Congress leader Oscar Fernandes on Wednesday extolled the virtues of 'gaumutra' and shared an anecdote about a man claiming to have cured his cancer by drinking cow urine to drive his point home.

Participating in a debate in Rajya Sabha on two bills for setting up national commissions for homoeopathy and Indian systems of medicine, the former Union minister said, "My extreme friend Jairam Ramesh pulls my leg, when I talk of 'gaumutra'."

Sharing an anecdote, Fernandes said once during a visit to an ashram near Meerut he had met a person who claimed to have cured his cancer by drinking 'gaumutra'.

Many BJP leaders have earlier spoken about the healing power of 'gaumutra'. The Congress has reacted sharply to such remarks.

He also praised the virtues of the Indian systems of medicine. He said when he had severe pain in knee joint and doctors had suggested for replacement surgery. However, he refused and started doing 'Vajrasana'.

"I started Vajrasana, practising yoga, and today I am able to do wrestling without any difficulty," the septuagenarian leader said.

"When (former) prime minister (Atal Bihari) Vajypee ji had a knee surgery, I thought if I had known him earlier, I would have definitely gone to him and ask him to follow 'Vajrasan' and it could have been cured," he said.

He also claimed to have met a person in US aged around 104 years and moving swiftly as a young man.

"Yoga is our wealth. If you practise yoga, may be our budget cost of health can be reduced by 50 per cent. It's way of life," he said.

"Our own Indian systems of medicine will provide a lot of reliefs even before going to a doctor," he said.

Though Fernandes supported the bills but raised objection over the exclusion of yoga and naturopathy.

"I would urge the minister either to amend the bill or bring an assurance that it will bring a separate legislation to cover yoga and naturopathy," he said.