Chhota Rajan, 3 others held guilty in fake passport case

Former passport officers arrested for abuse of office

Indian national Rajendra Sadashiv Nikalje, 55, known in India as Chhota Rajan, is brought out from a holding cell at the Bali police headquarters in Denpasar on Bali island on November 2, 2015. An alleged Indian crime boss wanted in his home country for up to 20 murders has been arrested in Indonesia after two decades on the run, police said October 26. Nikalje had been evading police in several countries for years, with Interpol flagging him as a wanted man back in 1995. AFP PHOTO / SONNY TUMBELAKA

A Delhi court on Monday convicted underworld don Chhota Rajan and three former passport officers under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, Prevention of Corruption Act and the Passport Act in a fake passport case.

Special Judge Virender Kumar Goyal held Rajan guilty of obtaining passport twice by submitting forged documents in conspiracy with the three passport officers, while the latter were convicted for helping the gangster obtain passport by abusing their official position at the Bengaluru Regional Passport Office.

Immediately after the verdict, the passport officers — Jayashree Dattatray Rahate, Deepak Natvarlal Shah and Lalitha Lakshmanan — who were on bail, were taken into custody.

Judicial custody

Rajan is lodged in Tihar jail in the Capital in judicial custody. He participated in the court proceedings through video conferencing due to security reasons.

The judge will hear the arguments on the quantum of sentence on Tuesday.

Rajan got the fake passport issued in 1998-99, while the CBI lodged a case in the matter when he was deported from Indonesia in 2015.