India asks Thailand to keep Rajan under provisional arrest

In a related development, the Government has issued a show-cause notice to Rajan asking why his passport should not be cancelled. This is a mandatory requirement under the Passport Act, but the Government, North Block officials said, had done its best to minimise the handicap by asking Rajan to reply within 24 hours (by tomorrow).

Sources disclosed that Maharashtra Home Minister Chaggan Bhujbal recently spoke to Home Minister L.K.Advani on the phone about the case. Advani reportedly reminded Bhujbal curtly that the state government had still not handed over all the papers seeking Rajan’s extradition to New Delhi and he better do it soon to see things moving. This was done by the Maharashtra authorities only this morning, officials stressed, while the first batch of papers — which were incomplete in terms of legal documentation — were despatched on Monday.

An MEA spokesman today told reporters that the Indian embassy in Bangkok had already revoked the passport of Rajan because it was a false one and that the Thai authorities had been informed of this move.

Interestingly, the spokesman today said Rajan should be arrested provisionally “pending his extradition or deportation, whichever is feasible.” The new element of “deportation” seems to have been introduced after Chagan Bhujbal told reporters in Mumbai yesterday that he would like Rajan to be deported from Thailand.

According to the spokesman, a diplomatic demarche has been made to the Thai authorities to the effect that “a formal request for the extradition to India of Chhota Rajan is being prepared and shall be forwarded to the government of Thailand.”