When Chhota Rajan almost killed Dawood Ibrahim

Chhota Rajan may have been out of touch with the underworld in the past year and a half, but he is the same man who almost came close to killing Dawood Ibrahim in the year 2005.

Officials who were overseeing this particular operation say that it would have been a sure shot hit on Dawood Ibrahim, but for some strange reason the Mumbai crime branch swooped in and arrested the two men who were supposed to carry out the job.

When Rajan almost killed Dawood

In the year 2005, two of Rajan's men, Vicky Malhotra and Farid Tanasha were handpicked to eliminate Dawood. The duo were to travel to Karachi and kill Dawood while he would be attending his daughter Mahrook's wedding.

According to the plan, both Malhotra and Tanasha were to travel to Karachi ahead of the wedding. They had gathered information about when exactly Dawood would arrive at the venue. The plan was to shoot Dawood at the venue.

However this plan was thwarted in India itself. The Mumbai crime branch swooped in and arrested both Malhotra and Tanasha and even booked them under the provisions of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act. The plan had to be withdrawn.

An officer says of all the plans that were hatched to eliminate Dawood this one was the most concrete. "Had the police not arrested the duo, I would say that we had a 99 out a 100 chance in eliminating Dawood," the officer also adds.

Rajan's face-off with Dawood

Until the year 1993, Dawood and Rajan worked together. However following the serial blasts at Mumbai in 1993, Rajan decided to part ways with the D Gang. Rajan cited the blast as a reason for the split. Since then Rajan has positioned himself as the patriotic don or a Hindu don.

Since the split Rajan has managed to weaken the Dawood gang in many ways. The killing of Sharad Shetty in Dubai was a big blow for the D Gang. Shetty who was instrumental in running the D-gang's Dubai operations also managed the money for the network. Rajan however managed to eliminate Shetty in Dubai.

Apart from this he had several other members of the D Gang. Rajan had played a key role in the killing of Nepal MLA, Dilshad Baig who was considered to be an ISI agent.

Further Rajan also plotted the killing of Parvez Tanda and Khalid Masood, both considered to be ISI and Dawood agents. The killing of Jamim Shah a cable operator in Nepal was also a major blow to the D Gang's operations.

Does Rajan have any information now?

Rajan has been instrumental in the fight against Dawood Ibrahim. However the question now is whether he can provide information relating to Dawood. He has been arrested and will be brought to India soon and several officials will grill him for information.

Officials however say that he may not have any new information relating to Dawood. He has been too busy saving his own life from the D Gang off late and moreover he has a health condition as a result of which he has been out of sync with the underworld.

His gang began to crumble from 2014 onwards. Many of his close aides had turned against him and he was almost isolated. His entire focus has been on hiding since 2014 and hence we doubt he has any fresh information on Dawood, Indian officials say.