In the underworld it is difficult to tell good from bad and friends from foes. It is a constant game of cat and mouse where no one emerges unscathed. Intelligence officials and police officers immerse themselves in this world of smoke and mirrors to use one force against what they perceive as a larger evil. Chhota Rajan was one such gangster and in all probability his arrest in Bali and subsequent extradition could be the homecoming of 'our gangster'.
According to some reports the run-away don surrendered to the Indonesian police after some behind-the-scene negotiations. the aim of this exercise was to protect him for D-Company's sharpshooters who had homed in on his hideout in Australia. There is another school of thought that believes Rajan had double crossed Indian intelligence agencies who decided to pull the plug. The ordinary citizen will never know. Rajan was the right-hand man of the Dawood Ibrahim gang until the 1993 Mumbai blasts. After escaping from Dubai he declared himself as the patriotic don and stayed in the business by leaking information of D-Company members who were either apprehended or killed.
So, is Chhota Rajan one of India's most wanted criminals? That is how the establishment would like to project this arrest if only to pull the wool over the eyes of the unsuspecting public. In reality there could be more at stake than the intelligence community would like to admit.
