Gangster Obed Radiowala, accused of firing at Mahesh Bhatt, deported from the US

Crime branch officials said Radiowala has been living illegally in the US for at least a decade, and they had issued a red-corner notice against him in 2015

Obed Radiowala, gangster Ravi Pujari’s aide who is a key accused in the 2014 firings on film-makers Mahesh Bhatt and Karim Morani, was deported to India from the United States (US) on Tuesday. At the time of going to press, he had landed at the Delhi airport.

Obed Radiowala being taken in a flight to India from the US. (HT Photo)

Hindustan Times had on Thursday reported that the 46-year-old was in the custody of a US federal agency and will soon be brought back to India. Crime branch officials said Radiowala has been living illegally in the US for at least a decade, and they had issued a red-corner notice against him in 2015. He will now stand trial in the two cases in the MCOCA court.

During its drive against illegal migrants in September 2017, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) took Radiowala in their custody and kept him at a detention centre in New Jersey. On April 1, a New Jersey immigration court issued an order to deport Radiowala, after which the ICE officials alerted the Indian authorities.

Radiowala allegedly gave the contracts to kill Bhatt and Morani from the US, at the behest of Pujari. Last year, the court found 10 men, including Radiowala’s brother Anees, guilty in the Bhatt case and sentenced them to five years imprisonment. The trial in the Morani case is on.

In his confession, one of the convicts had said, “On November 14, Hasnat told me that Pujari has given a contract to Anees and Ishrat through their brother Obed Radiowala to fire at Mahesh Bhatt. On November 15, Ishrat said we have to fire at Bhatt.”