‘Radio Uncle’ was painted across Mumbai. Police probe led to 73-year-old man who loves music

For months, residents of Mahim, Matunga and Dadar have been seeing the words “RADIO UNCLE” painted on walls, compound gates and outside shops. There was no phone number, no address, and little to indicate who Radio Uncle was. A police case has now identified him as 73-year-old Ravi Ramlal Kapoor, a resident of Mahim, who has spent the past decade travelling around the neighbourhoods selling speakers and playing old Hindi songs.

The Shivaji Park police have booked Kapoor under Sections 3 and 4 of the Maharashtra Prevention of Defacement of Property Act, 1995, after a BMC licensing inspector found “RADIO UNCLE” written on the walls of the BMC School City of Los Angeles Municipal School, a well at Manmala Devi Temple, Lakshmi Sadan near Gokhale Road, around Patkar House and at several other locations.

Kapoor’s business and had been put up without permission on public property. Kapoor, however, had told The Indian Express earlier this month that he was not the person who painted the signs. He said a man had approached him and offered to write “Radio Uncle” around the area.

Kapoor agreed, saying he wanted to support someone who was willing to work. “He claimed to be an artist, and I like to support people who work hard,” Kapoor had said. He later asked the man to stop, Kapoor said, though he was not specific about how much he had paid him or how many locations had been covered.