Gangster Chhota Rajan in Bali Police custody
Chhota Rajan, the gangster arrested in Bali for charges of murder, extortion and arms smuggling, may be kept in the same high-security cell where 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab was lodged.
Rajan, if and when he is brought back to Mumbai, is expected to be first put up in the crime branch lock-up in the police headquarters, which is built for high-value prisoners and heavily guarded by special forces and Quick Response Teams. Kasab was kept there just after he was arrested in 2008 for the Mumbai terror attacks.
Sources say police and security officials don't want Rajan to be moved around too much in India, as there are concerns that there may be attacks on him. The option of videoconferencing for his questioning is being considered.
Despite reports of threats to his life, Rajan has said in Bali that he wants to return to India.
The 55-year-old crime boss, who spent over two decades evading the police in many countries, has 71 cases of murder, extortion and drug trafficking against him just in Mumbai. He had earlier told the Bali Police that he wanted to go to Zimbabwe and was afraid that he would be killed in India by the men of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, his former mentor turned bitter rival.
"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 gangster has also denied that he surrendered, countering speculation that his arrest was part of a secret deal with Indian security agencies.
A team of CBI and Mumbai police officers will travel to Indonesia to bring back Rajan. The Mumbai Police has prepped a dossier of his cases 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.
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)."