Why was Chhota Rajan arrested?

The arrest of Chhota Rajan in Indonesia has been considered as a major breakthrough for India. Rajan who had split with the Dawood Ibrahim gang in 1993 following the Mumbai serial blasts is said to have provided ample information about the D syndicate and in many circles was called the Patriotic or the Hindu Don.

The question is why was he arrested, if he was providing information about Dawood Ibrahim, the man India is desperately looking for. There are various factors behind the arrest of Rajan.

Why was Chhota Rajan arrested?

Speaking to various officials part of counter-intelligence, one gets a fair idea as to why Rajan may have been arrested. Off late, the information was not coming by. Officials say that his utility may have run out and he had not been providing much information about the D-Gang as he had done in the past.

The other factor is that Rajan was not in the best of health and it is said that he had issues with his kidney and for the past few years had spent many months in different hospitals. Rajan too realised that his health condition would become a major cause for concern and his rivals would track him down easily.

Chotta Shakeel, who is Dawood's most trusted aide had sworn to gun him down and Rajan realised that his prolonged stay at hospitals would make him an easy target. Hence Rajan would feel much safer in a jail in India.

Rajan was running out of choices

Rajan was clearly running out of choices. One official says that his cover had been blown when he was in Australia. It was in fact his cook who gave out information about his whereabouts to Shakeel. This made Rajan extremely vulnerable to an attack by the D Gang.

The other factor is that Australia was not happy with his presence on their soil. Indian agencies were aware that Rajan was in Australia for sometime now. Moreover the authorities in Australia had gathered information about a plot to kill Rajan.

Australia conveyed to India that they did not want any blood shed on their soil and hence the man needed to be taken away.

Another official points out that ever since Rajan's name cropped up in the murder of senior journalist J Dey, there has been a changed perception about him. The murder of the journalist at Mumbai in 2011 has not gone down too well with many within the Indian agencies and also the Mumbai police.

Officials also say that Rajan may have erred recently about some information relating to the D Gang and many in Delhi were unhappy about the same. Many officials had even questioned his utility at that point in time. Officials say that off late there was not much information coming from Rajan as he had problems of his own.

Rajan's primary problem had become the D gang members looking out for him. He had changed locations several times in the past three years and was more concerned about his own safety and dealing with some of his aides who were turning against him. These issues kept him busy and off late he had not been passing on information.