Mumbai police struggling to get custody of Ravi Pujari aide
The prosecution informed the magistrate that it wanted to prosecute the accused.
Mumbai: Since the past two days, the crime branch, Mumbai, has been struggling with the courts to get the custody of Obaid Radiowala, the deported aide of gangster Ravi Pujari.
On Wednesday when the police produced Radiowala before the special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court, it asked them to produce him before the magistrate. The magistrate remanded him in one-day police custody and asked the police to produce the MCOCA court order on the basis of which he was produced before the magistrate.
However on Thursday, the prosecution informed the magistrate that they wanted to prosecute the accused under MCOCA, following which, the court extended his custody by a day so that the police could produce him before the concerned court Friday.
According to Radiowala’s lawyer Nazneen Khatri, on Thursday when the police produced Radiowala before the magistrate, special public prosecutor Pradeep Gharat informed the court that the trial against the rest of the accused had been conducted under the MCOCA and hence, Radiowala, too, should be tried under MCOCA. Following which the magistrate remanded him in the custody of the crime branch’s property cell for a day.
Now, the police will again produce him before the MCOCA court Friday.
It may be recalled that the police in USA arrested Radiowala in 2017 and deported him to India earlier this week. After he landed in Delhi, the police brought him to Mumbai and produced him before the MCOCA court however, special Judge S.M. Bhosle passed an order saying that the police was seeking Radiowala’s custody in the case (conspiracy to kill filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt) where 10 persons had been convicted by the court under relevant sections of the IPC and all the accused had been discharged and hence, directed the police to produce Radiowala before the magistrate court. Due to this order, the police produced him before the magistrate court.
However, when the prosecution informed the court that the police wanted to try him under MCOCA, the magistrate sent him to a day’s remand so that they could produce him before the concerned court the next day.