Man arrested in plot to kill Mahesh Bhatt gets bail

An accused the Bombay High Court has granted Ravi Pujari gang member’s assistant bail in a 2014 case involving a plot to assassinate Bollywood filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt.

According to a copy of the court judgment made public on Thursday, a single bench of Justice Bharati Dangre on August 10 granted bail to the accused, Obed Radiowala, on a personal bond of 50,000.

Obed Radiowala, who is being tried in the eight-year-old case, was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in September 2017 due to his unauthorized entry into the nation.

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He has been imprisoned since his deportation to India in September 2019.

Eleven people were found guilty in the case in 2018 on counts of criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Still, they were exonerated under the Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act terms before Obed Radiowala was deported (MCOCA).

In her ruling, Justice Dangre stated that Obed Radiowala has been charged with organizing US financiers and that the money allegedly obtained in this way was transferred to a co-accused.

The High Court said there was no evidence against Obed Radiowala that could be used as a basis for a first indictment, except for a co-confessional accused’s statement.