Chhota Rajan, three others get 7 years in jail in fake passport case
A Delhi court sent gangster Chhota Rajan to seven years in jail in a fake passport case on Tuesday. This is the first case in which he has been convicted and awarded a jail term.
Rajan, who was allegedly very close to Mumbai underworld kingpin Dawood Ibrahim in 1980s and 1990s, was deported to India after his arrest in Bali in 2015 to face trial in over 70 cases of murder, extortion and drug smuggling in Delhi and Mumbai. He is currently lodged in Tihar Jail.
Three retired government officials — Jayashree Dattatray Rahate, Deepak Natvarlal Shah and Lalitha Lakshmanan — were also awarded seven years jail term for helping Rajan fraudulently acquire the passport in the fictitious name of Mohan Kumar, on the basis of fabricated documents.
The Central Bureau of Investigation had alleged that during 1998-1999, Rajendra Sadashiv Nikalje alias Chhota Rajan entered into criminal conspiracy with Rahate, Shah and Laxmanan to fraudulently procure the passport under a fictitious name in order to conceal his identity.
While pronouncing the judgment, the court observed that accused Rahate, Shah and Lakshmanan abused their position as public servants while accepting the application to re-issue Rajan a passport that had a false name and address.
The court also noted that Rajan had twice got passports issued in the name of Mohan Kumar, first from the Regional Passport Office at Bengaluru and then from Consulate General of India, Sydney, Australia. Signatures appearing in the application form for re-issue of passport given at the Bengaluru office and on the passport issued by Consulate General of India in Sydney, were the same and tallied with the specimen signatures of Rajan.
“Accused Rajendra Sadashiv Nikalje alias Chhota Rajan intentionally and knowingly furnished false information with false address and other particulars... Application was accepted by A-4 (Lalitha Lakshmanan) and it was processed by A-2 (Jayashree Dattatray Rahate), not only this, date of birth was also corrected as per old passport, copy of which was forged and fabricated. Passport was signed and issued by A-3 (Deepak Natvarlal Shah) and in such manner without lawful authority altered the date of birth in the application for re-issue of the passport,” the court said.
The four accused were held guilty for committing offences under sections 419 (punishment for cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 467(forgery of valuable security or will), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and 120B (punishment for criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 12 (offences and penalties) of the Passport Act.