New Delhi, Oct 26 (IANS) Mumbai underworld don Chhota Rajan, a former key aide of fugitive Dawood Ibrahim, has been arrested in the Indonesian province of Bali, CBI director Ranjit Sinha confirmed here on Monday.
Rajndera Sadashiv Nikalje alias 'Chhota Rajan', 55, the boss of a major crime syndicate based in India, was arrested on Sunday with the help of Interpol. He was on the run for two decades. The Interpol flagged him as a wanted man back in 1995.
Wanted for a series of murders in India, Rajan was arrested as he arrived in the popular resort island of Bali from Sydney.
Earlier in the day, confusion prevailed over news of his arrest.
Rajan, 55, operated from Chembur and surroundings since the mid-1970s and later became a trusted henchman of Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, the absconding don from Mumbai who is reportedly hiding in Pakistan.
Both fell out after the March 1993 Mumbai serial blasts and Chhota Rajan slipped out of India in 1995, remaining on the run till his arrest on Sunday.
According to available information, the mafia don -- declared a wanted man by InterPol since 1995 - arrived by flight from Sydney, Australia, to Bali on Sunday afternoon and was arrested.
Despite repeated attempts, top police, bureaucratic and political officials in Maharashtra maintained a guarded silence and declined to comment on the developments which have immediate and long-term implications for Mumbai's underworld as well as Maharashtra's law and order.
Earlier, for a couple of hours on Monday, confusion reigned in top intelligence and police circles in Maharashtra with some officials claiming that another serial killer from Karnataka, Mohan Kumar alias Cyanide Mohan, had been arrested.
