CBI takes over probe in 5 cases against Chhota Rajan; his mentor figures as accused

The CBI has taken up five new cases against gangster Chhota Rajan, with two of them pertaining to his initial days as alleged small-time bootlegger working for his mentor Rajan Nair over 36 years ago, officials said on Tuesday.

In one of the cases of 1980, his godfather Nair aka Bada Rajan is also named as accused with him, while another relates to his 'filmy' car chase by police in 1983 in which he had injured two policemen who attempted to catch him, they said.

The other three cases are pertaining to abduction and extortion allegedly committed by his gang members on his orders in late 90s and early 2000s.

 

On November 21 in 1980, Chhota Rajan, along with his mentor Nair, and accomplices Abdul and Ramesh Sharma had allegedly stabbed one Anthony Fernandes, who was waiting for a rickshaw at the Ram Narkar road in the evening.

Nair was reportedly killed in 1982, following which Rajan Sadashiv Nikalje alias Chhota Rajan took over the leadership of the gang.

Without saying anything, they attacked him with knives and escaped when he raised an alarm, the FIR, registered by Mumbai Police on the complaint of Fernandes, states.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has also taken over investigation in the 1983 case when Mumbai Police had arrested Chhota Rajan during an alleged bootlegging operation.

Police had tried to stop the taxi in which Chhota Rajan and his accomplices were allegedly smuggling liquor but they attempted to escape on the directions of the gangster, they said.

In the hustle that ensued, two policemen tried to hold him inside the moving taxi when he attacked them with a knife, they said.

Chhota Rajan was arrested by police in that operation, they said.

The CBI has also taken over two cases pertaining to extortion by Chhota Rajan's gang from a builder Haresh Matani on October 31 in 2000 and Gajanana Ganpat Jadhav in 2002.

The agency has also taken over the probe into the alleged abduction of a lawyer, Punamchand Malu, in 1998.

The Maharashtra government had handed over 71 cases to the CBI after the arrest of Chhota Rajan in Indonesia on October 25, 2015 on the basis of an Interpol Red Corner Notice and subsequent deportation to India ending over two decade long run from Indian law enforcement agencies.