Obaid Radiowala, the alleged aide of gangster Ravi Pujari, has told his interrogators that he financed two jobs for Pujari because one of the targets rubbed one of his friends the wrong way.
In 2014, the Mumbai Crime Branch arrested 14 people for allegedly plotting to kill a filmmaker. Radiowala and Pujari, both of whom are behind bars, were named as wanted accused in the case. They were also booked in another case, where gunshots were fired outside the residence of a Mumbai-based film producer in the same year. While Radiowala was deported from the United States earlier this year, Pujari was picked up in Senegal and is currently in custody there.
Officers who were part of Radiowala’s interrogation said instead of helping Pujari’s gang to create an atmosphere of fear in the film industry, Radiowala's motivation stemmed from personal reasons. “Radiowala’s friend, identified only as Bittu so far, works in the field of film distribution and event management in the U.S.. Bittu wanted overseas distribution rights for a film releasing in 2014, which had several leading Bollywood stars. When the producer, who is based in western Mumbai, refused, he sought Radiowala’s help in roping in Pujari to intimidate the producer,” a Crime Branch officer said.
The officer said Pujari first made a couple of threatening calls to the producer, but the latter did not pay any heed to them. “Pujari was himself in dire straits at the time, as his extortion calls were largely being ignored by his targets. In order to be taken seriously, Pujari instructed his foot soldiers to fire gunshots outside the producer’s residence in Juhu. Radiowala sent money to the shooters on Pujari’s instructions. However, the attempt to intimidate fell flat as the producer didn’t realise when the shots were fired outside his house, and Pujari himself had to call up a couple of news outlets to inform about it,” the officer said.
The second case against Radiowala, which was the alleged plot to kill a film director, stemmed from Pujari’s wounded ego, who decided to make a splash in the film industry by murdering a filmmaker, sources said.
“Radiowala also sent money through hawala channels to the shooters to kill the filmmaker at his office in the western suburbs. However, the plan was foiled before it could reach fruition with the arrest of the 14 accused. Pujari later claimed that he had chosen the director as a target because of his statements in favour of minority communities. Pujari had been trying to portray himself as the new ‘patriotic don’, an image first propagated by Rajendra Nikhalje alias Chhota Rajan,” another officer, who is part of the investigation, said.
With Rajan, the ‘patriotic don’ ruse worked to some extent as he broke off with his former boss, Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, after the latter helped with the logistics of the serial blasts of 1993. However, it was later revealed that Rajan fled from a party in Dubai in the dead of the night as he became aware of a plot to kill him.
“While very few believed Rajan’s claims to begin with, it was even less believable coming from Pujari and was quickly dismissed, both by the underworld and the film industry. This was one of the reasons why Pujari later stepped up his activities, trying to extort anyone: from builders to cable operators in Maharashtra and Bengaluru,” the Crime Branch officer said.
A native of Mazgaon, Radiowala was sent packing to the U.S. by his elder brother in light of his increasing involvement in the underworld in the early 1990s. He first worked as a salesman at 7-Eleven — a major departmental store chain in the U.S. — and then tried to start his own business, while all the time staying in touch with Pujari and other minor figures in the underworld, sources said.
Radiowala is currently in judicial custody, while Pujari’s extradition process is still under way in Senegal. Bittu is still wanted in both the cases.
