Chhota Rajan: Still master of an empire

Those who have tracked Rajan from his humble beginnings in a chawl in Tilak Nagar,central Mumbai,feel his rise and long run at the top fit into a pattern that includes use of sheer muscle power and outwitting underworld rivals in bitter turf wars on the way to becoming the master of an empire.

Mumbai Police Crime Branch officers say Rajan still helms a large part of the network that he had built in India alongside Chhota Shakeel for his former boss and now rival Dawood Ibrahim.

Although the media was initially informed that Deys murder was not an underworld attack,this was a ploy to divert our line of investigation. The sheer planning and precision with which such a sophisticated attack was carried out pointed to the hand of a powerful gang such as the Rajan gang, says Additional CP (Crime) Deven Bharti.

His operations are spread over Mumbai,Navi Mumbai,Thane,even Pune and Nashik. In his early days,his revenue came from shopkeepers,bootleggers and gambling dens… With time,he began getting regular extortion money from builders,which he enjoys even today, said another officer.

Rajan today gets a lot of money from the transport mafia of trucks,containers at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust,and also scrap auctions. He enjoys a virtual monopoly on this. He also gets protection money from builders,bars,pubs,hookah parlours,restaurants and the cable mafia, adds Additional DGP Rakesh Maria,who has dealt extensively with the underworld.

Police say Rajan,just like Dawood,has attempted to set up legitimate ventures for money laundering,and has been expanding his businesses in Malaysia,Hong Kong and Bangkok. He has diversified and invested in real estate,hotels,shopping malls and smaller departmental stores in foreign countries. Rajan has also invested in the stock market heavily. These dons now have tax consultants and chartered accountants, said Maria.

Sources say Rajan has been aided in his survival by his proximity to Indian intelligence agencies,keen to extract information on the Dawood gang and to use his resources in operations against Dawood. In July 2005,a team of Mumbai Police officers flew to Delhi and arrested Rajans right-hand man Vicky Malhotra while he was travelling in a car with Ajit Kumar Doval,the then director of the Intelligence Bureau.

Doval,the Centre and the Mumbai Police remained silent on this,but sources say the arrest led to friction between the IB and the Mumbai Police. Malhotra was apparently being used as an asset by the IB. This sparked speculation that intelligence agencies were planning to use Malhotra for an operation against Dawood,possibly a bid on his life,at the Dubai reception for his daughters wedding with Javed Miandads son. Eventually,Dawood skipped the reception.

In June 1998 in Kathmandu,Rajan aides gunned down Mirza Dilshad Beg,Nepal MP,who was allegedly handling Dawoods operations there and running guns into India with ISI help. In media interviews later,Rajan claimed Beg was killed as the ISI was using him for terrorism in India,and that Indian intelligence agencies had been aware of the plot to kill Beg.

Rajan himself has been on the run ever since he broke away from Dawood after the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai. Rajan began eliminating many key accused in the blasts. In September 2001,Dawood attempted to kill Rajan by sending a team to Bangkok led by Chhota Shakeel. Rajan escaped by jumping out of a hotel window; his aide Rohit Verma and his wife were killed.

After being accused of Deys murder,Rajan could lose any sympathy he may have gained as a patriotic don supposedly taking on Dawoods anti-national activities. Sources say intelligence agencies would now be reluctant to view Rajan as the lesser of the two evils. The outrage surrounding Deys murder could be the final straw for agencies considering washing their hands of Rajan,they said.