Chhota Rajan gets consular access, joint police team reaches Indonesia

Ramping up the efforts to bring back underworld don Chhota Rajan, a joint team of officials from the CBI, Mumbai and Delhi polices arrived in Indonesia to seek his deportation. Rajan was also given consular access on Sunday.

“A joint team of officers from CBI, Mumbai Police and Delhi Police left on Saturday night for Indonesia. They would be formally seeking deportation of Rajan, and would comply with all legal requirements,” a CBI official said. In the absence of an extradition treaty, the Indian authorities have already provided documents to their Indonesian counterparts about his Indian identity to facilitate his deportation. 

CBI, which has sent its officer as it is the nodal agency for Interpol in India, will hand over Rajan’s custody to Mumbai Police once he is brought back as most of the cases against Rajan are registered with Mumbai police. 

According to conservative estimates, Mumbai has at least 75 cases registered against him while Delhi 

Police has six cases on him.

The team departure came two days after India wrote formally to the Indonesian authorities seeking Rajan’s deportation to India to face trial in various criminal cases against him in India.

Meanwhile, first Secretary (consular) at the Indian embassy in Jakarta, Sanjeev Kumar Agrawal, met Rajan for about half an hour at the detention centre in Bali in the first formal contact between an Indian official and the wanted don. The Indian investigators who are in Bali are believed to be carrying detailed documentation on Rajan, including arrest warrants issued by courts for him, chargesheets and FIRs against him in various police stations under various Indian criminal laws.