Chhota Rajan case: State seeking list of cops from CBI

It seems like the Maharashtra government is taking seriously charges leveled against the Mumbai police by arrested underworld don Rajendra Sadashiv Nikalje alias Chhota Rajan. Senior home officials said that they would seek the list of police officers that were allegedly working for India’s most wanted underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.

According to sources from the Maharashtra home department, Chhota Rajan, who was recently deported from Indonesia, had given to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) the names of some senior police officials who were working for Dawood.

“We have come to know that Rajan has given a list of 14 police officials to the CBI that is now investigating all his cases. The government is in the process of getting the list from the investigation agency,” a senior home official said, requesting anonymity.

The move gained significance as Rajan has been accusing senior Mumbai police officers for working with Dawood Ibrahim, the prime accused in 1993 bomb blasts and also his arch rival.

Even as CM Devendra Fadnavis dismissed all the allegations, when Rajan was in custody of the Bali police, he had reiterated that he did not want to go to Mumbai as his life would be in danger in the island city.

The same is believed to be the reason for Rajan not being brought to Mumbai despite majority of the crime cases registered against him in the city. The Mumbai police had even made a separate high security area in Arthur Road jail for Rajan as they were of the view that ‘anda cell’, the highest security area of the prison, would be unsafe for him.

Suddenly, the state decided to transfer all the cases against Rajan to the CBI, leaving the Mumbai police red-faced. After the decision, chances of bringing the don back to the city have become bleak. However, a senior home official claimed that transferring all the cases to CBI was a conscious decision of the state. “As per the deportation treaty, the city police would need a central agency all the time for interrogating the underworld don. Thus, it was decided to allow the central agency to handle all Rajan cases,” the officer said, requesting anonymity.