According to the transcripts, a man named Appa, who claimed to be an NCP worker, sought gangster DK Rao’s help to get his work done through the minister.
MUMBAI: More transcripts of gangster DK Rao’s conversations with people during his confinement in Arthur Road Jail have surfaced.
Last time, the transcripts mentioned Minister of State for Home Siddharam Mhetre. This time they involve Social Justice Minister Chandrakant Handore and an unnamed former chairman of the standing committee of the Thane Municipal Corporation. In the recordings, the gangster expresses confidence that the two politicians will help his underling with his work.
DNA has a copy of the transcripts of the telephone conversations, recorded by the Criminal Intelligence Unit of the Mumbai police crime branch after a tip-off that Rao continued to run his gang from jail using a mobile phone and SIM cards smuggled in to him. He also used to talk to his boss Rajendra Nikhalje aka Chhota Rajan, Rajan’s wife Sujata, and other gangsters.
Rao was later arrested under the MCOCA for running his gang from prison in co-ordination with Sujata. The transcripts are part of the records in the MCOCA court. Police said the voice-matching report of the tapes is awaited from the Chandigarh forensic laboratory.
According to the transcripts, a man named Appa, who claimed to be an NCP worker, sought Rao’s help to get his work done through Handore. The references to the then standing committee chairman of the Thane Municipal Corporation are also clear.
Handore, MLA from Chembur, is the guardian minister for Mumbai. In the 2004 assembly elections, he had defeated Chhota Rajan’s brother and Republican Party of India candidate Deepak Nikhalje.
In another conversation on November 22 last year, Rao claimed to have started a private security agency. He told one Chandu, “If anybody requires private security guards, he can contact Appa.”
The transcripts also hint at the depth of Rajan and Rao’s involvement in the real estate business and their links with developers.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Detection) Dhananjay Kamalakar refused to comment, saying, “I don’t want to comment on a continuing probe.”
Conversation between Appa and DK Rao, November 30, 2005, at about 10.10pm
Appa: Once Handore is convinced that I have links with you and Seth (Chhota Rajan) that is enough, he will believe my allegations against builders about FSI and other cheatings.
Rao: “OK... OK... I will certainly talk to him.”
Later
Rao: That standing committee chairman? … I made him chairman…
He worships me… You go to him and tell him my name, he will give you some or other tender… Find out some lucrative work in that area…
“I am shocked. I do not know this man. I have never seen him, never talked to him. Just because some second person talking to a third mentions the name of a fourth, you cannot say the person was linked with the second or the third.” — Chandrakant Handore
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