A brief history of one of India’s most famous gangsters

A special court in India today sentenced Chhota Rajan to a life sentence, for ordering a hit on journalist Jyotirmoy Dey’s (J-Dey) seven years ago. The court also sentenced eight other accused who were involved in the conspiracy.

Rajendra S. Nikhalje, aka Chhota Rajan, has been linked to Dawood Ibrahim in the past, the most wanted criminal in India. He has also been linked to multiple other crimes, including murder, extortion and drug trafficking. Here’s a brief history of Rajan’s life, his eventual arrest and recent conviction.

Rajan’s Entry into crime

• Ranjan started out his criminal career by committing petty crimes, before his mentor Bada Rajan brought him into black marketing of cinema tickets at Sahkar Cinema, near Chembur in Mumbai, in the 1980s.

• Under the mentorship of Bada Rajan and Yadagiri of Hyderabad, he learnt the tricks of the trade.

• His friends and colleagues addressed him as ‘Nana’.

Entry into organised crime

• Chhota Rajan ascended to the throne after the death of his mentor, Bada Rajan.

• For a short period, Dawood Ibrahim, Rajan and Arun Gawli, a well known politician and underworld don in the country, worked together.

• Gawli's elder brother Papa Gawli was assassinated over a drug deal and a rift formed.

• Later, Rajan fled to Dubai and never returned.

• After the 1993 Bombay bombings, Dawood and Rajan fell out. There were even reports that he tipped off India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) about Dawood's network.

The split

• Rajan formed his own gang after the split, sometimes called Nana Company.

• Reports of bloody shootouts between Rajan and Dawood’s henchmen were common after the split.

• The Dawood-Rajan party was over, the messy end coming in September 2000, with Dawood Ibrahim’s left-hand man, Chhota Shakeel's attack on Rajan in his Bangkok hotel room.

The capture

• On 25 October 2015, he was captured in Bali, Indonesia with the help of a tip-off by Australian police stating that Rajan had travelled to Bali under the alias Mohan Kumar.

• Rajan was then caught at the airport and was extradited to India on 6 November 2015.

• He was then transferred to Tihar Jail in the country’s capital, awaiting trial in almost 70 cases.

Convictions

• He has been convicted in two cases till date. The first one being fake passport case - convicted on 12 April 2017.

• The other being the J-Dey murder case (convicted on 2 May 2018) wherein he ordered a hit on a journalist J-Dey who reported that Chhota Rajan was the mastermind behind a murder attempt on Dawood's brother, Iqbal Kaskar, in Mumbai. Upset with his report, Chhota Rajan ordered a hit on the journalist.

• The hit was carried out on 11 June 2011 by four motorcycle-borne gunmen in Hiranandani Gardens in Mumbai’s Powai neighbourhood. The murder was linked with Chhota Rajan by the police.