An alleged Indian crime boss wanted in his home country for up to 20
murders, has been arrested in Indonesia after two decades on the run,
police said on Monday.
Acting on a tip-off from Australian police,
Indonesian authorities detained Rajendra Sadashiv Nikalje on Sunday as
he arrived in the popular resort island of Bali from Sydney, Bali police
spokesperson Heri Wiyanto told AFP.
The 55-year-old Nikalje,
known in India as Chhota Rajan, had been evading police in several
countries for years, with Interpol flagging him as a wanted man back in
1995.
"We received information from police in Canberra yesterday [on Sunday] about the red notice for a murderer," Wiyanto told AFP.
"We
arrested the man at the airport yesterday. What we know is that this
man was suspected to have carried out 15 to 20 murders in India."
Nikalje
was the alleged former right-hand man of Mumbai crime kingpin Dawood
Ibrahim, who is suspected of being behind the 1993 bomb blasts in the
city that killed more than 250 people.
Nikalje later became
Ibrahim's rival, accused of running one of several underworld outfits
that had a grip on India's financial and entertainment capital in the
1980s and 1990s until a police crackdown.
"It [the arrest] is
very, very important because after Dawood's gang, his was the second
most notorious and cruel gang," former Mumbai police chief P.S Pasricha
told an Indian TV station.
"People were so scared that they
stopped even holding their marriages in Mumbai or purchasing expensive
cars because the moment they did, they would get calls from gangsters
for extortion."
Among other crimes, police accused Nikalje in 2011
of ordering the murder of a prominent Mumbai crime reporter, who was
gunned down in a drive-by shooting the same year.
Wiyanto said
Bali police were coordinating with Interpol and Indian authorities,
adding it was likely Nikalje would be deported to India.
A
spokesperson for Australian Federal Police said Interpol in Canberra had
alerted Indonesian authorities "who apprehended Nikalje at the request
of Indian authorities".
The federal police confirmed last month
that Nikalje was living in Australia under another identity and had been
in discussions with Indian authorities, the spokesperson said, but
would not provide further details.
Nikalje in 2001 was wounded by
gunmen who burst into a Bangkok apartment and killed his associate in
what appeared to be a shooting ordered by Ibrahim.
Because he was
facing a bid to extradite him to India, he made a dramatic escape from
the Bangkok hospital where he was being treated.
India's top
Central Bureau of Investigation welcomed the arrest on Monday, saying it
had been working with Australia authorities to hunt down Nikalje.
Interpol's
website says Nikalje was born in Mumbai, and was wanted for multiple
charges including murder and possession and use of illegal firearms.
Monday, October 26, 2015
Indian mass killer held after 20 years on the run
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