Police want court letter to probe Pandey’s Vietnam links

The Crime Branch also suspects that Pandey had made use of his front as a labour contractor in Vietnam to help some aides to immigrate there so that they could actually serve as his bodyguards.

“Ever since he broke away from the Chhota Rajan gang,Pandey has feared that Rajan is out to get him killed. We suspect that since 1996,under the guise of a labour contractor,Pandey got some men to immigrate to Vietnam and then become his bodyguards,” said Roy.

According to the police,while Pandey’s last operation in the city was the extortion attempt by his aides on the Ravi Group,prominent in the western suburbs,his activities in Uttarakhand and particularly in Nainital carried on till the time of his arrest.

“Since Uttarakhand became a separate state,it has been receiving a lot of Central funds for construction of new infrastructure projects such as roads and buildings. Pandey was targeting this cash inflow into the state,” said a Crime Branch officer,who did not wish to be named.

After years of evading arrest and operating an extortion racket from different overseas hideouts,Pandey was brought to Mumbai from Vietnam on Thursday morning and arrested by the Mumbai Police Crime Branch in a joint operation with the Interpol wing of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Pandey,according to the police,had assumed a false identity and had been living in Vietnam as a labour contractor while running his illegal operations in India. The police have also recovered an Indian passport under the assumed name that appears to have been issued by the Indian Embassy in Phnom Penh.

According to the police,he is a notorious criminal who was a former member of the Chhota Rajan gang and then floated his own gang. Pandey has 34 cases against him,13 of which are in Mumbai and 21 in Uttarakhand. Since 2002,Pandey has been living in Cambodia,Vietnam,Thailand,Singapore,Bangladesh and Nepal depending on the varying situations there.