Mumbai/New Delhi : Absconding mafia don Rajendra Sadashiv Nikhalje, alias Chhota Rajan, a trusted aide turned bitter foe of his mobster boss Dawood Ibrahim, has been arrested in the Indonesian resort Bali, Indian authorities said on Monday. CBI director Anil Kumar Sinha said Chhota Rajan, who once operated out of Mumbai and was wanted in India for a series of serious crimes, was taken into custody on Sunday when he was travelling under a false identity – that of Mohan Kumar. Sinha said the 55-year-old gangster was also involved in the killing of veteran Mumbai journalist J. Dey in Mumbai on June 11, 2011. Home Minister Rajnath Singh thanked Interpol and the Indonesian government for nabbing Chhota Rajan, who began life as a black marketer of movie tickets before embracing murders, extortion, kidnappings and more. It was not clear how and when Chhota Rajan would be brought to India as New Delhi and Jakarta don’t have an extradition pact. Some reports said he would be deported to India later this week. “India was active on this case… I want to thank Interpol and the Indonesian government for this. Post-verification, investigation will be taken forward,” Rajnath Singh said in New Delhi. This is billed as the biggest victory for Indian security agencies after the arrest of mafia don Abu Salem Ansari in Portugal in September 2002. He was deported to India in November 2005. Chhota Rajan operated from Chembur and its surroundings in the mid-1970s when he became a trusted henchman of Dawood, now India’s most wanted don who reportedly lives in Pakistan.
Dawood and Chhota Rajan fell out after the bloody March 1993 Mumbai serial blasts that Dawood ordered to avenge the communal riots in the city on the heels of the Babri mosque razing. Chhota Rajan slipped out of India in 1995 and remained on the run till his arrest on Sunday. According to media reports, the don — declared a wanted man by Interpol since 1995 — flew into Bali, home to a large number of Hindus, from Sydney on Sunday afternoon. The arrest is expected to have both immediate and long-term implications for Mumbai’s underworld. The Indonesian police acted following a tip off from their Australian counterparts, a Bali police official said. The Australian Federal Police had been tracking Chhota Rajan. Chhota Rajan started life as a black marketer of movie tickets over two decades ago. Slowly, he took to murders, extortion, kidnappings and other serious crimes once he joined the Mumbai underworld. Born in a middle-class Marathi family, Nikhalje earned the nickname Chhota Rajan when he took over the gang of his mentor, Rajan Nair, alias Bada Rajan, who was killed in the 1970s. He then joined Dawood’s crime syndicate, popularly known as “D Company”.
Apprehending serious threats to his life after his rift with Dawood, Chhota Rajan reportedly took the help of Indian authorities to escape to Dubai under a fresh identity. It was during the heyday of the Mumbai underworld in the 1980s and 1990s that the two gangs were engaged in bloody street wars, leading to many “encounter killings” by the police. The Mumbai Police finally gained an upper hand against the mafia in 2000. In September 2000, Dawood’s men led by Chhota Shakeel tracked down Chhota Rajan to a hotel room in Bangkok. Posing as pizza delivery boys, they opened fire at him. A stunned Chhota Rajan jumped out of the hotel’s first floor room and escaped but was seriously injured in the fall, breaking his back. But he survived and slipped out of Thailand. His arrest has raised possibilities of the Indian authorities catching up with the infamous Dawood, police sources said.
How was he caught :
Chhota Rajan was caught soon after he arrived at the resort island of Bali in Indonesia at around 10 am on Sunday. He had flown the Garuda Indonesia from Sydney, where he had reportedly stayed for a month. The police in Bali was tipped off by the Australian police about a murderer travelling on an Indian passport in the name of “Mohan Kumar”. It soon emerged that Mohan Kumar was an alias used by the 55-year-old crime boss wanted for charges that include contract killing, arms smuggling and extortion. Sources told CNN IBN that Rajan’s role is also suspected in the assassination of Nepal MP Mirza Dilshad Beg, who was shot dead in Kathmandu in 1988. Rajan is known to have three passports. He has shuttled between Australia, Malaysia and Cambodia since 2000; Dawood Ibrahim’s men had tracked him to a hotel in Bangkok and tried to kill him, but he escaped by jumping out of a hotel window.
V K Singh: Key role
Electronic media reports say MoS of External Affairs VK Singh was in Indonesia on Sunday just before the arrest of Chhota Rajan. It is understood that Singh had prior knowledge of the staged ‘surrender’ and was sent to Djakarta to secure the cooperation of the Indonesian government. Singh was also supposed to ensure that there were no hiccups in the ‘surrender’ operation.
Doval was the brain
National Security Advisor Ajit Kumar Doval was the mastermind of the Chhota Rajan surrender operation. The arrest is likely to earn kudos for the Narendra Modi government and will be touted in BJP circles as a step close to nabbing Dawood Ibrahim. Indonesian authorities have promised to deport Rajan shortly and is currently being quizzed in Bali. Once he arrives, the heat will turn on Dawood.
Mumbai to take lead inprosecution :
New Delhi : The Centre has clearly said that it is Mumbai which would take the lead in bringing to book wanted gangster Chhota Rajan. Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju told reporters on Monday that once the mafia don was brought to the country, the police in Mumbai would have to take the lead in his prosecution. ‘‘Most cases are registered against him in Mumbai. The police in that city will take the initiative of his prosecution,’’ Rijiju explained.
Maharashtra has already put in a demand with the Union Government that Chhota Rajan should be sent to the state for trial in the dozens of cases against him. Rijiju termed the nabbing of the mafia don as a case of close co-ordination between the authorities of Australia, Indonesia and Indian security agencies. Earlier, Minister for Home Affairs Rajnath Singh officially confirmed news of Chhota Rajan’s arrest to a wire service over phone from Bihar. Terming the arrest as a ‘major success’, Singh thanked the Indonesian government. He reminded media persons that the Indian government had been trying to nab him for a long time and had made a request to Interpol in this regard. A little after news broke about the arrest of Rajendra Sadashiv Nikalje, alias Chhota Rajan, in Bali (Indonesia), Rajnath Singh said ‘‘It has been confirmed that Chhota Rajan has been arrested in Indonesia. The process of verification and other details are on.’’
