NEW DELHI : After being on the run for the past 27 years, underworld don Chhota Rajan was deported here early today from Indonesia by a joint team headed by CBI officials for facing trial in over 70 cases of murder, extortion and drug smuggling against him in Delhi and Mumbai.
One of India’s most wanted criminals, the 55-year-old gangster, whose real name is Rajendra Sadashiv Nikalje, was whisked away soon after landing at the Palam Technical area and taken straight to the barricaded CBI headquarters where a team of officials started questioning him.
There was high drama as the CBI anticipating a large media presence used a decoy car to ward them off.
Due to security concerns, Rajan is unlikely to be taken to a Delhi court and instead a magistrate will be brought to the CBI headquarters for his remand, agency sources said, adding that he will also be subjected to the mandatory medical check up.
He is expected to the kept in the national capital where he will also be questioned by sleuths of various investigating agencies on his claims of having further evidence to nail India’s most wanted terrorist Dawood Ibrahim and his links with Pakistan’s ISI.
Rajan, who has reportedly tipped Indian security agencies about the movement of Dawood and his aides, was flown in an Indian Air Force Gulfstream-III aircraft from the Indonesian tourist town Bali.
Official cars with flashing lights accompanied by heavy- armed escort vans were seen leaving the Palam Technical Area at around 5:30 AM, as anxious camerapersons and photographers made unsuccessful attempts to get a glimpse of the underworld don, who was in one of those vehicles with tinted glasses.
Rajan had told media in Bali that he was happy to return to India and had rubbished reports that his arrest was orchestrated as he was facing threat from Dawood’s men.
Ahead of his arrival in India, Maharashtra government made a surprise announcement of handing over all the cases related to the underworld don to the CBI as the agency had expertise in handling such cases. This move comes barely a few days after the state Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had been making claims that Rajan will be brought only to Mumbai.
The Maharashtra government’s sudden U-turn raised many eyebrows within the police establishment in the megalopolis as the Chief Minister himself had ordered setting up of a special cell inside Arthur Road prison with arrangement for dialysis. Rajan is on dialysis as his both kidneys have been affected.
Rajan, after his arrest, had expressed reservation over plans to lodge him in a Mumbai jail, fearing that Dawood may target him there. (AGENCIES)
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