Mumbai: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday took over investigations into three old cases connected to gangster Rajendra Nikhalje alias Chhota Rajan, which were registered with the Maharashtra police.
CBI officials said the move was part of the agency’s probe into the cases registered against Rajan. Rajan was arrested in Bali in October 2015 and was brought to India in November. Since then he has been in the CBI custody.
“We have registered three separate cases and taken over investigation of these cases on request of the Maharashtra government and further notification from the Centre,” said a CBI officer.
The officer said the first case among the three was registered in 1998 by the Tilak Nagar police, when Chembur resident Bala Kotian was shot at and killed while he was sitting in Navgrah Hotel in Chembur on October 7, 1998. The murder was allegedly part of gangland rivalry and was committed at Rajan’s behest. The Tilak Nagar police had registered a case of murder under the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Arms Act.
In the second case, which was registered by the Nirmal Nagar police in 1999, three people, claiming to be from Rajan’s gang, had made extortion calls to a Bandra-based businessman, demanding ₹25 lakh from him and threatening to kill him unless he paid up. The victim had subsequently approached the police, and the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) was invoked in the case.
The third case was registered by the Navghar police on July 31, 2004, after three men barged into the office of a Mulund-based businessman and demanded money from him at gunpoint. The trio, who identified themselves as Rajan gang members, assaulted the complainant and damaged his cell phone before fleeing. The MCOCA was also applied in this case.
