Chhota Rajan, 3 others held guilty in passport case
NEW DELHI: A city court on Monday held gangster Chhota Rajan guilty of cheating the government by obtaining a forged Indian passport, crimes which entail a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.
Special Judge Virender Kumar Goyal also convicted three retired public servants — Jayashree Dattatray Rahate, Deepak Natvarlal Shah and Lalitha Lakshmanan — for helping Rajan to obtain a fake passport by “entering into a criminal conspiracy”.
55-year-old Chhota Rajan is currently lodged in Tihar Jail.
A Delhi Court on Monday convicted underworld don Rajendra Sadashiv Nikhalje alias Chhota Rajan and three others in a fake passport case.
The court on June 8 2016 framed charges against Rajan and then passport officers Jayashree Dattatray Rahate, Deepak Natvarlal Shah and Lalitha Lakshmanan under sections of IPC dealing with criminal conspiracy, cheating, cheating by impersonation and forgery of documents. CBI in its chargesheet alleged that Rajan got issued a fake passport from Bengaluru in 1998-99 in connivance with Rahate, Shah and Lakshmanan in the name of Mohan Kumar. Rajan is involved in over 85 cases, ranging from murder to extortion, smuggling and drug trafficking. He has cases pending against him in Maharashtra, Delhi, UP, Gujarat and with CBI. Rajan, held by the Indonesian police on October 25, 2015, was deported to India on November 6, 2015. Rajan was arrested on the basis of an Interpol Red Corner notice at Bali airport on October 25 after he had arrived in the island city of Indonesia from Australia. Mumbai Police has nearly 70 cases registered against Rajan, including 20 of murder, four cases under 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.
Delhi Police have six cases registered against Rajan, who was a close aide of Dawood at one point but split before the 1993 Mumbai blasts were conspired.
In 2000, there was an attempt on Rajan’s life when Dawood’s men tracked him down to a hotel in Bangkok but he managed a dramatic escape by jumping from the first floor of the hotel.