Singapore may extradite gangster Pillai to India

mumbai — Twenty years after he fled Indian shores, gangster Kumar Pillai is likely to be brought back to Mumbai from Singapore, where he was nabbed recently.

Mumbai police has sent an extradition request to the authorities in Singapore through India’s central agencies, but senior officials say it would take quite some time to bring Pillai back to the city.

Son of a smuggler, the engineer-turned-gangster is wanted in nearly half-a-dozen criminal cases in Mumbai. He is also suspected to have had close links to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and had sourced sophisticated weapons from the now defunct group.

Mumbai police had issued a red corner notice and were tracking his movements in Southeast Asia. He was detained by the police in Singapore, and could be brought to India, as the two countries have an extradition arrangement.

Last year, Chhota Rajan, one of the most wanted criminals, was caught in Bali in Indonesia and brought to India by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Krishnan Pillai, Kumar’s father, controlled a small gang in Mumbai’s eastern suburbs in the 1980s and 1990s. But rivalry with one Lal Singh Chauhan, who was affiliated to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, saw him being killed.

Kumar then joined hands with the Naik brothers, Amar and Ashwin, two notorious gangsters of eastern Mumbai and killed Chauhan. He escaped from Mumbai about 20 years ago, especially after Amar was killed in a police encounter and Ashwin was severely injured.

Though he stayed out of Mumbai, initially operating from Chennai, and later from Southeast Asia, the police say he controlled several rackets in eastern suburbs including Bhandup and Vikhroli.