Obaid Radiowala, the alleged aide of gangster Ravi Pujari, was on Wednesday brought to Mumbai after being deported from the United States. He was produced in a Mumbai court and remanded in police custody for a day.
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According to Crime Branch sources, Radiowala landed in New Delhi on Tuesday night. “Our team had been in Delhi since Saturday evening. The deportation was handled by the CBI, and he was subsequently handed over to our team,” a Mumbai Crime Branch officer said. The officer said the team reached Mumbai with Radiowala on Wednesday morning, and produced him in a special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court.
Radiowala was declared a wanted accused in the 2014 plot to kill a Mumbai-based filmmaker. The hit was allegedly sanctioned by Pujari, with Radiowala being involved in the planning of the murder plot. However, the Crime Branch arrested 13 accused, including Radiowala’s brother, before the plan could reach fruition.
“After the case went to trial, the MCOCA charges were dropped by the trial court and the accused were convicted under the Indian Penal code and the Arms Act. On Wednesday, the MCOCA court ruled that as the case no longer fell under its purview, Radiowala should be produced in a lower court. We then produced him in the Esplanade Court, but as the written order by the MCOCA court was yet to reach the lower court, he was remanded in our custody for a day, with order to produce him again on Thursday,” the officer said.
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Radiowala is currently in the custody of the Property Cell of the Crime Branch, which had investigated the case jointly with the Anti Motor Vehicle Theft Cell.
Radiowala is also suspected to have been involved in the firing outside the residence of a Mumbai-based film producer. In 2014, two people had fired a gunshot outside the producer’s residence to intimidate him at Pujari’s behest. Radiowala was arrested in 2017 by the U.S. Immigration and Customs authorities after he was found to have overstayed his visa period. The U.S. and the Indian government then reached an agreement as per which Radiowala’s deportation was approved.