Search the Internet           Tips

Chotta Rajan to ask Thailand not to deport him

Gangster Rajendra Nikalje -- the man the Bombay underworld knows as Chotta Rajan -- is to petition the Thailand prime minister's office on Monday against being forced to return to India.

On the impression that a Bombay police team was to arrive in Bangkok on Monday to help the Thai police investigate the murderous assault on his life and seek his extradition -- that trip has now been cancelled -- his lawyer Sirichai Piyaphichetkul said the gangster will request the Thai government that he be allowed to leave the country and not forced to return to India.

"Let Rajan decide where he wants to go, he has the right to go to any country because he is not a criminal," the lawyer told reporters.

Rajan, who is wanted by the Bombay police in connection with a number of criminal cases, was shot and seriously injured in an apartment on September 15 by a group of eight gunmen.

His associate Michael D'Souza alias Rohit Verma was killed and his (Verma's) wife Sangeeta Sharma injured in the attack.

Though there is no extradition treaty between India and Thailand, the police here say they have the right to send anyone back to his country if there are sufficient grounds to prove that he has committed a crime there. A close aide of Rajan said the gangster does not want to return to India and if New Delhi applies for his extradition he will fight the case as Bollywood composer Nadeem -- who is alleged to be involved in recording baron Gulshan Kumar's murder -- had done in London.

On Friday, Rajan, who had been brought before a Bangkok court to testify in the murderous attack on him, had said he wanted to return to India to surrender to the authorities. His aide claimed the gangster wants to stay in Thailand and set up a business. He will probably leave Bangkok to recuperate elsewhere and then return here.

ALSO READ:

'In Thailand and in India, I have no enemy'

Tell us what you think of this report