Hours before underworld don Chhota Rajan was deported to India from Indonesia on Thursday, the Centre revoked his passport saying it was obtained using fake identity and documents. Rajan, who has been on the run for over two decades, is set to land here in the wee hours.
After Rajan’s deportation was approved by the Indonesian authorities, Rajan was subjected to a health check up before he was emplaned in a special aircraft along with a team of CBI, Delhi and Mumbai Police that had gone to that country to bring the bete noire of “global terrorist” Dawood Ibrahim. The special aircraft took off from the Ngurah Rai International at around 10.15 pm local time (1945 hours IST).
Rajan was arrested on October 25 after the Australian police tipped off the Bali police about his presence in the Island
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has said that investigations have revealed that Chhota Rajan had produced fake identity and related documents at the Indian mission in Australia.
“His passport has been revoked as it was obtained using fake identity. The Government has already instituted an inquiry into the matter,” MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup said. The inquiry will also possibly throw light on how the underworld don was issued a passport by the Indian mission in Australia despite producing a fake identity.
“It is not the first case when a fake document was used to get a passport or it will be the last. But whenever it comes to our notice, we take action,” Swarup said.
Chhota Rajan, whose original name is Rajendra Sadashiv Nikhalje, used the identity of one Mohan Kumar to get the passport in Australia. He was arrested in Bali on while travelling on Indian passport with the assumed identity of Mohan Kumar. It is learnt that Rajan’s fingerprint scanned by the biometric machine led to the arrest.
Rajan is wanted in 70 cases in Mumbai, including 20 murder, four under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, one under Prevention of Terrorism Act and over 20 cases under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act.
Indian Ambassador to Indonesia Gurjit Singh tweeted: “#ChotaRajan deported successfully to India.Delay due to Bali airport closure ends. Thanks Indonesia for support.”
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Government on Thursday handed over cases related to the underworld don to the CBI. “The cases are being handed over to the CBI because of its expertise in handling trans-national crimes,” Maharashtra Additional Chief Secretary K P Bakshi told reporters in Mumbai at a hurriedly-called Press conference.
The decision comes a day after Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis had a detailed meeting with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Wednesday, sources said.
Delhi Police has also registered six cases against him.
With the transfer of the cases against Rajan to CBI and the decision to entrust his custody to the agency, security at the headquarters of the Central probe agency has been significantly beefed up with deployment of a Quick Reaction Team with armed commandos. Another QRT team has been kept in standby at the CISF headquarters in the CGO Complex at the request of the CBI. All the CCTV cameras in the state-of-the-art CBI headquarters building have been checked for any malfunction and are fully operational.