Chhota Rajan arrested in Indonesia

New Delhi: Indian Gangster Rajendra Sadashiv Nikalje surname Chhota Rajan has been arrested by Indonesian authorities in the famous resort island of Bali, police officials said on Monday.

The Union home ministry has confirmed the arrest of the gangster, who has been on the run for decades and is likely to be deported to India.

The 55-year-old Nikalje had been on the run for two decades and Interpol had flagged him as a wanted man in 1995, Wiyanto said.
“We received information from police in Canberra yesterday about the red notice for a murderer,” he said. “We arrested the man at the airport yesterday.

This man was suspected to have carried out 15 to 20 murders in India.”

Nikalje was born in Mumbai and is wanted for multiple charges, including murder and rights and use of illegal firearms.

Chhota Rajan began his career in crime as a petty thief and bootlegger under the wings of Rajan Nair, who was known as ‘Bada Rajan’. He became the head of Nair’s gang after the latter’s murder.

Before he goes to Dubai in 1988, Chhota Rajan began working with mob boss Dawood Ibrahim. The two fell out after Ibrahim masterminded a string of bomb blasts in Mumbai in 1993 that killed 257 people and injured hundreds more.