Extradition Process of Chhota Rajan’s Aide Stuck in Red Tape

Endeavours to get gangster Chhota Rajan's key lieutenant Santosh Mahadev Sawant nom de plume Abu Sawant removed have been stuck informality since 2015. This gratitude to the removal record returning and forward between the government and the CBI, which was given over the case as ahead of schedule as on November 13, 2015, by the Detection Crime Branch (DCB), CID, Mumbai, following the expelling of Rajendra Sadashiv Nikalje false name Chhota Rajan to India.

The Union Home Ministry has now encouraged the agencies to accelerate the procedures to bring back the Singapore-based gangster, whose cross-examination is pivotal to unwinding Rajan's blackmail racket in Mumbai, and the wagering organizations abroad.

According to the reports, a Red Notice (A-1070) was issued against Sawant route in 2012. It was accordingly distributed in the Crime Records (CR) of the DCB, CID, Mumbai (150/2005 and 04/2000).

The procedures picked some pace after Rajan was ousted in October 2015, and the removal procedure was exchanged to the CBI.

It sent the case to its Mumbai unit on April 7, 2016, by which time Unit-6 of the DCB, CID, had sent all documentation to the CBI, official records appear.

"According to the current reports, I demand you to relate with the Joint Director, CBI, Mumbai, in association with all procedure of removal against Abu Sawant sooner rather than later," Joint Commissioner of Police (crime), Ashutosh Dumbare, composed on February 26, 2019 because of two updates he got from the Home Ministry in 2018, which was confounded over which organization was taking care of the procedures.

The first of the two updates on the moderate procedure was sent by the Home Ministry on December 7, 2018, alongside a letter from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) mentioning to accelerate the procedures.

"The document has since been returning and forwards to Legal Cell of Ministry of Home Affairs and the Interpol part of the CBI," said a source who did not wish to be recognized.

Sawant's removal and cross-examination were pivotal to building a foolproof case, said a top cop.