Cops hope Chhota Rajan's return will answer many questions

Underworld don Chhota Rajan's arrest in Indonesia has gotten the state and city police visibly excited. Upon his return, cops hope they will be able to unravel his motives in several killings. Police sources say it is likely that he carried out a lot of murders to help the central agencies.

A Crime Branch officer said, "Look at the murder of trade union leader Datta Samant, who was shot in 1997 in Kolhapur. Three people were arrested for the murder in 2005, who confessed that Rajan had ordered the killing. Another accused, who had not been arrested, was shot at in 2007 in Kolhapur, but Rajan's motive is still unknown."

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He added, "Similarly for journalist J Dey's (crime and investigations editor at mid-day) murder, the Crime Branch has no theory. The branch has been telling journalists off the record that Rajan supposedly got suspicious of Dey and asked his aide to kill him."

Chhota Rajan. File pic/PTI

Two other cases are those revolving around the killings of gambler and bookie Chhote Miyan and Dawood Ibrahim's henchman Asif Dadhi. Police had arrested three suspects but couldn't establish motive.

Read Story: Did Chhota Rajan surrender to protect himself from Dawood?

In Dadhi's case, sources said Rajan had killed him since he was close to Dawood. The Intelligence Bureau (IB) is supposed to have ordered the hit. Rajan's name had also cropped up in the killing of Arif Syed Abu Bukha at Pakmodia Street, believed to be Dawood's stronghold. Bukha was the bodyguard and driver of Iqbal Kaskar, Dawood's brother.

Deportation may take time
The police said they have around 70 cases against Rajan in the city itself. They also said that his deportation would at least take a month. Atul Chandra Kulkarni, joint commissioner of police (Crime Branch), said, "Cases registered against Rajan go back to 1979.

We will first start with the 2012 cases and tackle the rest in a descending order." The police are planning to take this route since evidence is readily available for the 2012 cases, but evidence for older cases might be unavailable.