Chhota Rajan taken to CBI headquarters in Delhi

Underworld don Chhota Rajan was taken to the Central Bureau of Investigation headquarters after he arrived in the national capital on board a chartered plane in the early hours of Friday.

Having taken over all the cases pending against the gangster, the CBI is soon expected to seek his formal custody for interrogation.

Heavy security arrangements have been made at the agency headquarters where Rajan has been kept in detention. Soon after the special plane landed at Delhi airport, escorted by SWAT commando teams, the don was whisked away to the CBI lock-up around 5 a.m. In view of the threat to his life from the rival Dawood Ibrahim gang, the necessary legal proceedings for his custody may be conducted through video conferencing.

With the deportation formalities being completed and the volcanic ash clearing from Bali airport, New Delhi swiftly acted to ensure that the don is back in India at the earliest. Accompanied by officers of the intelligence and police agencies, the gangster boarded the plane to Delhi on Thursday evening.

Security at Delhi airport was strengthened and quick response teams deployed, while arrangements were made for a dummy convoy and alternative routes to thwart any possible attack.

After the Maharashtra government on Thursday declared that all the cases against Chhota Rajan pertaining to trans-border crimes would be transferred to the CBI, the Delhi Police also handed over its cases to the premier agency for further probe.

Rajan is an accused in over 80 criminal cases of murder, attempted murder, abduction, smuggling and extortion. While seven of them were registered by the Delhi Police, the Uttar Pradesh Police had recently arrested three of his accomplices.

Five of the cases registered by the Delhi Police Special Cell pertain to the arrest of Rajan’s henchman Farid Tayyab Tanashah and his four aides Nayan Singh Bist, Rajesh Namdev Kamte and Nepalese nationals Karan Bahadur Ram and Prem Chand Thakur in 1999. All these accused are currently absconding.

These cases were registered against them at Rajouri Garden police station on September 22, 1999, after the Special Cell busted the module. It was alleged that the gang was attempting to set up base in Delhi.

Tanashah, a contract killer and extortionist, had earlier worked with Rajan’s stanch rival Dawood Ibrahim; Kamle was a former associate of Mumbai don and Arun Gawli before he joined hands with Rajan.

The Special Cell had registered yet another case related to Chhota Rajan on September 3, 2009, after an Uttarakhand-based businessman lodged a complaint alleging that he was in Delhi for the medical treatment of his wife when he received threat calls from a Chhota Rajan gang member Bhupinder Vohra. Preliminary findings revealed that the call demanding Rs.50 lakh had been made from Nepal.

The CBI may also probe Chhota Rajan’s purported association with Fazl-Ur-Rehman alias Fazlu, another underworld gangster from Bihar. “Rajan had come to the rescue of Fazlu when the latter developed enmity with Dawood Ibrahim’s brother Anis,” said a police officer.