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Who will be underworld don Chhota Rajan`s successor?
With Chhota Rajan arrested in Indonesia, question doing the rounds is as to who will become his successor.
Delhi: With underworld don Chhota Rajan arrested in Indonesia, question doing the rounds is as to who will become his successor.
On of the names that has cropped up is that of Santosh alias Abu Sawant.
Sawant, 46, is a native of Chembur, a suburb in eastern Mumbai.
As per media reports, he has been handling Rajan’s work in Australia and Indonesia and was said active in real estate sector in Mumbai in the nineties and was in the city till 2005.
He is said to have left the financial capital of India in 2006.
Then he reportedly moved to Malaysia and later to Indonesia.
Here he looked looked after Rajan's financial transactions.
If Sawant does become Rajan's successor then he will handle the huge business of the arrested gangster pertaining to real estate, money laundering, smuggling and casinos.
Sawant was not with Rajan when he was arrested in Bali.
Sawant is said to be the only key figure remaining from Rajan's original group of gangsters.
While he stuck with Rajan, many others left and formed their own gangs.
Sawant reportedly has couple of cases pending against him and is on the run as of now.
Meanwhile, India today said it does not anticipate any problem in bringing back Rajan from Indonesia as he was arrested on a Red Corner Notice issued by Interpol.
"This is not an ordinary arrest. This is an arrest of a person with Red Corner Notice for which a whole different protocol operates," India's Ambassador to Indonesia Gurjit Singh said, as per PTI.
"That is why I said you don't have to talk too much about extradition because when you issue a Red Corner Notice to Interpol, there is a whole different ball game and since we have a very good relationship with Indonesia we do not anticipate a problem because after all they have clearly told us that this person was arrested on our request," he told an Indian news channel.
The arrest was made on a tip off from Australian police that 55-year-old Rajendra Sadashiv Nikalje alias Mohan Kumar alias Chhota Rajan, the powerful aide-turned-rival of terrorist Dawood Ibrahim, has flown from Sydney to Bali, where he was arrested on Sunday.
Once a close aide Dawood, Rajan parted ways after the 1993 Mumbai blasts and remained his fierce rival ever since and is wanted in about 20 murder cases.
Asked about bringing back Rajan to India, the Indian envoy said, "We have not only an extradition treaty, we also have a treaty on mutual legal assistance and both the treaties are enforced. We hope that this will be available to this case and any other case."
CBI had issued a Red Corner Notice against Rajan in July, 1995 on the request of Mumbai Police which was probing cases against him.
(With PTI inputs)