This Article is From Oct 29, 2015

Most-Wanted Gangster Chhota Rajan Says He Wants to Return to India

Gangster Chhota Rajan has said that he wants to return to India

Bali: Chhota Rajan, the most-wanted gangster arrested in Bali on Sunday, has said that he wants to return to India.

Rajan, who has 71 cases of murder, extortion and drug trafficking against him in Mumbai, had earlier told the Bali Police that he wanted to go to Zimbabwe and was afraid that he would be killed in India.

"I want to go back to India. I don't want to go to Zimbabwe," he said to reporters in Denpasar, as he was being taken for interrogation today.

The 55-year-old gangster has also claimed that he didn't surrender, countering speculation that his arrest was part of a secret deal with Indian security agencies.

Indonesian authorities say they are bound by law to deport Rajan within 20 days. The Mumbai Police is reportedly preparing a dossier of his cases to prep for the handover.

Bali Police Commissioner Reinhard Nainggolan had told NDTV that Rajan was desperate to go to Zimbabwe and didn't want to go to India because his "wife and father are dead." His wife, however, is alive and lives in Mumbai.

"He asked us to release him as he wanted to go to Zimbabwe. He said that he lived in Australia and before that in Zimbabwe and wanted to go there," the officer said, adding that the gangster was "nervous and smokes constantly."

Reports suggest that Rajan, who has been hunted by the police in many countries after an Interpol Red Corner notice in 1995, is terrified of returning to India because of threats from Dawood, his former mentor turned bitter rival, who has made many attempts on his life.

Responding to NDTV's question on whether he was scared of Dawood, Rajan said yesterday: "Mujhe kisi se darr nahin hain (I am not afraid of anyone)."

The arrest of the notorious crime boss on Sunday following a plan formed after he applied for visa extension in Australia in August.

His details matched with the Interpol notice and Australia informed New Delhi. Sources say the two countries decided that Rajan should be arrested in a third country, since a Red Corner Notice is not enough for an arrest in Australia. When Rajan boarded a Garuda Indonesia flight from Sydney, he probably knew he would not walk out of the airport in Bali a free man, sources say.
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