Underworld don Chhota Rajan was arrested in Bali yesrterday which sparked the debate of tracking 1993 Bombay Blasts accused Dawood Ibrahim.
New Delhi:
The plan to secure the arrest of fugitive gangster Chhota Rajan was devised by National Security Adviser Ajit Doval as part of a strategy to hunt down India's most-wanted, Dawood Ibrahim, police and home ministry sources told Reuters.
Superspy Doval, who is reputed to have handled Rajan - as a security asset in the past - wants to bring him in from the cold to help target Dawood Ibrahim who is believed to be living in Pakistan. At 70, Mr Doval, is a decorated former police and intelligence officer and has a track record of daring counterinsurgency missions.
Dawood Ibrahim is accused of masterminding the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai in which 257 people were killed and more than 700 were injured.
"The government is committed to bringing back Dawood and we will deploy every strategy to deport him," Kiren Rijiju, Minister of State for Home Affairs, told reporters on Tuesday after Rajan was held a day earlier on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.
One of the main accused in financing the Mumbai blasts, Yakub Memon, was hanged in July, 22 years after the attacks.
Officials in Home Ministry and Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Mr Doval had played a key role in orchestrating the arrest of Rajan.
Rajan and Ibrahim, who once worked together, are facing serious charges of murders, extortion and smuggling weapons. The pair reportedly fell out over Ibrahim's alleged involvement in the Mumbai blasts.
India and the United States accuse Ibrahim of financing terror groups, including al Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Taiba. The US Treasury has frozen his assets, and accuses him of drug running to Europe. Authorities in India say they have shared evidence of Ibrahim's whereabouts with Pakistan, which rejects suggestions that he is living in Karachi.
Indonesian police released a photo of the diminutive Rajan - his nickname means "little" - dressed in a white polo shirt, smiling at the camera and guarded by a single officer.
Rajan, 55, had been living incognito in Australia but, fearing his enemies would find him and kill him, was able to fly to Bali where he was arrested without putting up resistance, according to news reports.
Ajit Doval was involved along with two of Rajan's men in a botched operation in 2005 to assassinate Ibrahim at his daughter's wedding in Dubai, former home secretary R K Singh had told a television channel in August.
Mr Doval has previously denied the incident and said he was watching television at his home. He did not respond to requests for comment on this story.
Dawood Ibrahim's gang allegedly wounded Rajan in an assassination attempt at a Bangkok hotel in 2000. After being treated at a hospital, Rajan escaped using a rope made of bedsheets.
Atul Chandra Kulkarni, Mumbai's joint commissioner of police, told Reuters that Rajan's men kept a close watch on Ibrahim and his associates. The arrest could yield new intelligence that may help pressure Pakistan to deport Ibrahim, he added.
M N Singh, Mumbai's joint commissioner of police at the time of the 1993 blasts, agreed that Rajan's arrest was a coup for India.
"But I am not sure if an old, ailing and retired gangster would be our best bet to drag Dawood Ibrahim out of Pakistan," he said.
Superspy Doval, who is reputed to have handled Rajan - as a security asset in the past - wants to bring him in from the cold to help target Dawood Ibrahim who is believed to be living in Pakistan. At 70, Mr Doval, is a decorated former police and intelligence officer and has a track record of daring counterinsurgency missions.
Dawood Ibrahim is accused of masterminding the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai in which 257 people were killed and more than 700 were injured.
"The government is committed to bringing back Dawood and we will deploy every strategy to deport him," Kiren Rijiju, Minister of State for Home Affairs, told reporters on Tuesday after Rajan was held a day earlier on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.
One of the main accused in financing the Mumbai blasts, Yakub Memon, was hanged in July, 22 years after the attacks.
Officials in Home Ministry and Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Mr Doval had played a key role in orchestrating the arrest of Rajan.
Rajan and Ibrahim, who once worked together, are facing serious charges of murders, extortion and smuggling weapons. The pair reportedly fell out over Ibrahim's alleged involvement in the Mumbai blasts.
India and the United States accuse Ibrahim of financing terror groups, including al Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Taiba. The US Treasury has frozen his assets, and accuses him of drug running to Europe. Authorities in India say they have shared evidence of Ibrahim's whereabouts with Pakistan, which rejects suggestions that he is living in Karachi.
Indonesian police released a photo of the diminutive Rajan - his nickname means "little" - dressed in a white polo shirt, smiling at the camera and guarded by a single officer.
Rajan, 55, had been living incognito in Australia but, fearing his enemies would find him and kill him, was able to fly to Bali where he was arrested without putting up resistance, according to news reports.
Ajit Doval was involved along with two of Rajan's men in a botched operation in 2005 to assassinate Ibrahim at his daughter's wedding in Dubai, former home secretary R K Singh had told a television channel in August.
Mr Doval has previously denied the incident and said he was watching television at his home. He did not respond to requests for comment on this story.
Dawood Ibrahim's gang allegedly wounded Rajan in an assassination attempt at a Bangkok hotel in 2000. After being treated at a hospital, Rajan escaped using a rope made of bedsheets.
Atul Chandra Kulkarni, Mumbai's joint commissioner of police, told Reuters that Rajan's men kept a close watch on Ibrahim and his associates. The arrest could yield new intelligence that may help pressure Pakistan to deport Ibrahim, he added.
M N Singh, Mumbai's joint commissioner of police at the time of the 1993 blasts, agreed that Rajan's arrest was a coup for India.
"But I am not sure if an old, ailing and retired gangster would be our best bet to drag Dawood Ibrahim out of Pakistan," he said.
© Thomson Reuters 2015
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