Jhootha Rajan extorts from HK

MUMBAI: It’s literally a new identity, new hideout and new accent that gangster Chhota Rajan aka Rajan Nikhalje aka Nana has assumed, or so the Mumbai Crime Branch initially thought while intercepting a telephone number they thought was being used by him to make his extortion calls to businessmen in Mumbai.

The Hong Kong ISD code 00852 may have fooled them into believing that Rajan had shifted base, had it not been for the realisation that this was somebody else stepping into Rajan’s shoes after the gangster recently was forced into hibernation on health grounds. Furthermore, investigations revealed that it was one Nazre Alam who operates out of Hong Kong with his newly set up network of henchmen in Mumbai making extortion calls to businessmen, asking them to speak to ‘Nana’ on a Hong Kong telephone number.

“What is indeed surprising is the fact that of the several people who have been threatened for extortion by this phoney Nana, many have actually paid up a few lakh after negotiations with this Nana from Hong Kong. Rajan recently suffered a cardiac attack and has been lying low,” a Crime Branch official told DNA. Most of Rajan’s henchmen in Mumbai have gone underground, now that their boss was not active.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Rakesh Maria when contacted on the issue of Rajan’s health while confirming that the gangster was for long believed to be undergoing dialysis after suffering kidney failure told DNA: “We have no information on any cardiac problems Rajan may have suffered from.” Maria, however, said that the
department had no information on Alam’s extortion activity in the name of Chhota Rajan.

Rajan’s void in the underworld appears to have been immediately filled up by Alam who has moved fast. Only, to be more convincing he will have to focus upon his accent or soon even prospective extortion victims may make out that he is merely an imposter masquerading as Chhota Rajan to make a quick buck.