Scheming, calculative
VICE GRAPH
MUMBAI: Uncompromising, ambitious and viciously calculating are some of the qualities that made 55-year-old Rajendra Sadashiv Nikhalje, also known as Chhota Rajan, the boss of a notorious underworld gang that emerged in the early 1990s and became famous as ‘Nana company’.
Rajan — who was born to a lower middle class family and grew up in a suburban chawl in Chembur — began by committing petty crimes along with his mentor, Rajan Nair, who also goes by the name Bada Rajan.
His mentor then initiated him into black marketing cinema tickets outside a cinema theatre in the chawl, which brought Chhota Rajan in conflict with a well-known gambler named Yashwant Jadhav.
Jadhav hired thugs to drive Chhota Rajan and Rajan Nair out of his territory, pushing them to approach dreaded underworld gangster Vardarajan Mudaliar. The move helped them seize a great deal of Jadhav’s territory.
Jadhav in turn approached well-know gangster Abdul Qunju to counter Mudaliar’s threat. Qunju arranged a brazen ambush in 1982 in which Bada Rajan was killed, forcing Chhota Rajan to retreat into the shadows and wait silently to strike back.
In 1985, Qunju was killed in one of the most audacious attacks in Mumbai’s underworld history. Rajan calmly walked up to Qunju during a cricket match and shot him from a close range.
The brazen manner of the murder saw Dawood Ibrahim offering him a place in his gang. Rajan accepted the offer and became a key lieutenant of Dawood after he helped kill Samad Khan, the fiery nephew of former underworld don Karim Lala.
After Dawood left the country, Chhota Rajan was given charge of running the gang in Mumbai. Later, even he moved to Dubai and remotely operated the gang.
But as Shakeel Ahmed Babu, also known as Chhota Shakeel, gained prominence in D-Company, Chhota Rajan took a back seat. He plotted to branch out of D-Company systematically, and used the 1993 blasts as the platform to do so.
Rajan’s separation from Dawood saw one of the bloodiest episodes of Mumbai’s underworld where members of rival gangs or businessmen who owed allegiance to either of the gangs were hunted down on the busy streets of Mumbai.
In September 2000, Chhota Shakeel carefully engineered a plan to eliminate Rajan in Bangkok, and almost succeeded. The attack planned in a hotel room in Bangkok saw his right-hand man Rohit Verma being killed. Rajan escaped with three bullets.
After that, Rajan was on the back foot until he engineered a shootout outside Dawood’s brother Iqbal Kaskar’s house in Mumbai’s Pakmodia Street in 2011.
Rajan was believed to be operating from South-East Asian countries, and is believed to have been helping Indian intelligence agencies.
Chhota
Rajan’s wife Sujata was charged for running Rajan’s extortion business.
According to the case, she ran a company, with the help of other members of the gang, to extort money from city builders. Sujata and five other people were charged under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA)
Son of a hotelier who was brought up in Breach Candy in south
Mumbai, Shetty joined
Rajan, after Rajan’s split with Dawood in 1993.
Shetty handled the narcotics deals and planned major killings, including that of OP
Singh. Shetty and Bharat Nepali planned and helped Rajan escape from a hospital in Bangkok, after the attack by Chhota Shakeel. He fell out with Rajan after a tiff over a drug deal.
Till 2000, Satam was considered one of the closest aides of Rajan. He is believed to have gone underground, after he fell out with Rajan.
Nepali, a former Indian Army driver, was known for his muscle power. Nepali and Shetty were Rajan’s trusted aides till both of them formed their own gangs. Nepali was killed by Santosh Shetty in 2011, with the help of Vijay Shetty.
Singh was known as one of the most intelligent gangsters in the underworld. The former quality control officer was reported to be a close aide of Dawood while in Nepal, who later joined hands with Rajan. When Singh planned to form his own gang, Rajan got him arrested from Delhi. He was later killed in the Nashik prison.
Pujari was brought to the gang by one of
Rajan’s close aides from
Andheri. He worked with
Guru Satam. After Satam’s split with Rajan, Pujari decided to form his own gang. In a recent interview to
HT, Santosh Shetty claimed that
Rajan had allegedly told him that Satam and Pujari had given a tip-off about Rajan’s location to Dawood’s lieutenant Shakeel. Pujari rose to prominence after making extortion calls to film producers.
Raised in Santacruz in Mumbai, Verma, like Shetty, had a college degree. At the start of his career, he committed robberies and made extortion calls. Verma was also known as hammer because he used the weapon quite often. He took 32 bullets when Dawood’s shooters attempted to kill Rajan at a hotel room in Bangkok.
Based out of Kolkata, Malhotra is known to handle the gang’s business in the eastern part of the country. He is currently Rajan’s closest and trusted aide. It is also rumoured that after the attempt on Rajan’s life, Malhotra and a few more Rajan’s aides had crossed over to Pakistan from Iran to kill Dawood, but the plan had to be called off as Dawood got a whiff of the plan.
When the gangster was suffering from health issues, he asked Mohite to handle his business and other activities of the gang in Mumbai
He was Rajan’s spokesperson. He rose to prominence after ordering high-profile murders such as that of Mahesh Dholakia and Thakiyuddin Wahid.
Baje was Guru Satam’s close aide and was instrumental in the murder of labour leader Datta Samant in 1997. He was arrested and is now serving life sentence in the murder case.
Rao made the plan to kill OP Singh in 2003. Rao is currently lodged in the Arthur road jail.
DK Rao’s mentor, Gupta was involved in many murder, robbery and extortion cases in Goa and Mumbai. He was killed by the police in an encounter in November 2006.
Currently in jail, Pandey was part of the three-member team that led the gang when Rajan was unwell in the early 2000s.
He used to run the cable TV business from Tilak Nagar. Tanasha was killed by Bharat Nepali over a trivial issue.
A trusted aide of DK Rao,
Nepali was instrumental in killing OP Singh. He was involved in many robbery cases. He was killed in an encounter in October 2006.
The former wrestler was known to be ruthless when it came to executions. He is believed to have played an important role in killing Mirza
Dilshad Beg, Dawood’s close aide, in Kathmandu, which came a huge blow to
D-Company. Dokre was lured into a trap and killed by Shakeel’s men.
Pillai was a former aide of Amar Naik. Pillai later started his own gang.
JD aspired to be a singer, but landed up in the underworld. After Balu
Dokre’s death, JD rose to prominence. He is currently facing charges of extortion and murder. He took care of Rajan’s financial transactions. He took help from bookie and chartered accountant Vinod Ansari to deposit funds in the accounts made in the name of Rajan’s daughter.
Brother of Chhota Rajan, Nikhalje was arrested for being a part of Rajan’s wife’s gang that extorted money from businessmen. Prakash is a former customs clearing agent.