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Rajan says he is in Europe

In an interview to Star TV, Rajan said from an undisclosed location that he would like to return to India but feared he would be killed by Ibrahim's gang.

"I do want to come to India, but looking at the condition of the country and looking at the threat to my life -- that Dawood and his men are after me, I would not want to come back to India," he told NDTV, which produces news for Star News in India.

Rajan denied bribing the Thai police to escape from the Bangkok hospital where he was being held. Rajan's lawyer Sirichai Piapichetkul had earlier said he escaped after paying Thai police Major General Kriekphong Phukprayoon 25 million baht ($586,000).

"This is a lie. He is not a lawyer, he is a liar. After the period that he was my lawyer, I haven't spoken to him since and I haven't given money to anyone," Rajan said.

Rajan said a team of professional mountain climbers helped him escape from his fourth floor hospital room to his car, which took him to his yacht. He then sailed to an undisclosed port where his private jet was waiting, he said.

"I am in Europe now," he said.

On November 24 he escaped from a Bangkok hospital where he was recovering from gunshot wounds suffered in a incident which appeared to have been ordered by Ibrahim.

Rajan was facing extradition to India, where authorities want him to stand trial on 17 counts of murder and other mob-related charges.

He said he escaped from Thailand because his life was in danger from Ibrahim.

"I had intelligence reports that my life was in danger, that some of Dawood Ibrahim's men were coming from Indonesia and were looking for me. They would have attacked me," Rajan said.

Thai police had claimed Rajan used knotted bed-sheets to escape from the hospital room where he was being held under police custody.

New Delhi had revoked Rajan's passport as his travel documents were not in order and he was under provisional arrest in Bangkok.

Rajan was once Ibrahim's right-hand man in the Bombay underworld but a series of bomb blasts in the city in 1993 which killed 300 people led to a fall-out.

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