Chhota Rajan arrest: Mumbai Crime Branch team to travel to Bali

A squad of Mumbai Police Crime Branch would be part of the team which would travel to Bali to bring back underworld don Chhota Rajan and would also brief the Union Home Ministry on the process of documenting his offences

A squad of Mumbai Police Crime Branch would be part of the team which would travel to Bali to bring back underworld don Chhota Rajan and would also brief the Union Home Ministry on the process of documenting the offences committed by the gangster.

Chhota Rajan. File pic

Mumbai Police spokesperson Dhananjay Kulkarni said, "One officer from our force has left for Delhi today (Thursday), who would be briefing Home Ministry with reference to the communique made to us on Tuesday." The Union Home Ministry had asked Mumbai Police to make a detailed documentation of the offences committed by the arrested fugitive in his home turf where he is wanted in over 75 cases including suspected role in murder of investigative journalist J Dey.

Following the directives, the Crime Branch had formed a team to compile the history of the 55-year-old gangster, who had been on the run for two decades. On whether the officer concered was going to Delhi along with the dossier, Kulkarni refused to divulge any details.

However, according to another officer, privy to the developments, documenting a big dossier would take time but a squad of Mumbai Police Crime Branch would be part of the team which would go to Bali to bring back Rajan.

The one-time trusted aide of terrorist and crime boss Dawood Ibrahim, Rajan is wanted in scores of criminal offences ranging from murder and extortion to smuggling and drug trafficking.

The cases in which Rajan's involvement is suspected include the murder of mid-day crime reporter J Dey in June 2011. Out of the 75 cases Rajan is facing, four are registered under Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA), one under Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) and over 20 cases under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).

Atulchandra Kulkarni, Joint Commissioner of police (crime branch) had said that apart from compiling records of over 75 criminal cases against Rajan, a police team was also documenting the fine-prints of each case, evidences available and status of each of them in different courts, not only in the Mumbai city, but also in Navi Mumbai and Pune, where the offences have been registered."

Kulkarni, who heads the crime branch of Mumbai Police, said the documents would be presented to the State as well as and Union Home Ministry to be be furnished subsequently to the Indonesian counterparts for Rajan's extradition after translating them into English and Bahasa, the official language of Indonesia. However, he refused to make a guess on how many days it will take to bring Rajan to the country, as it was the 'matter between two countries'.

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