INDIAN MAFIA EXTORTION RACKET IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

By P. Vijian

NEW DELHI, July 10 (Bernama) -- Kuala Lumpur is one of four prominent
Southeast Asian capitals targeted by a dreaded Indian underworld don to lure
wealthy Indian businessmen to non-existent business deals before extorting them
of huge ransoms.

Like a spider spinning its web, Chotta Rajan's henchmen operate a shadowy
network spanning Bangkok, Dubai, Mumbai and Kuala Lumpur to trap their
well-heeled victims.

Late last month, a Mumbai-based senior police official singled out notorious
kidnapper Prakash Pande alias 'PP' as a high-profile gangster reportedly based
in Malaysia.

He said Pande used relatively unknown criminals from the Indian state of
Uttar Pradesh to successfully execute major kidnappings of wealthy Indian
businessmen.

On July 9, the Headlines Today, an Indian news channel, in an expose
unravelled how Mumbai-based gangsters shuttled between Bangkok, Dubai,
Mumbai and Kuala Lumpur, mainly targeting wealthy Indians.

"Chotta Rajan and his gang have devised new methods to extort money. An
Indian businessman was flown out of the country to make business deals in
Bangkok where
he was kidnapped and held for a huge ransom," said the report.

Citing a recent example, the channel revealed how a millionaire marble
businessman from the northern state of Rajasthan was lured to Bangkok in March
this year and later demanded RM3.7 million (five crore Indian rupees) from his
father.

The 28-year-old businessman's father was believed to have paid close to RM1
million for the release of his son

According to investigative journalists who tracked the criminal nexus, the
victim was flown from Mumbai to Bangkok, where Rajan's trusted lieutent Santosh
Shetty was alleged to have kidnapped the businessman from the airport.

"They (the Indian mafia) have designed a sophisticated method to extort
money
from businessmen," the news channel reported.

The Mumbai-based gang war between Rajan and another Indian underworld don
Dawood Ibrahim (now hiding in Pakistan) -- two most wanted figures in Indian
criminal records -- has spilled over to Bangkok, Dubai and Kuala Lumpur.

In 2005, Dawood's key aide, Chotta Shakeel, another ruthless gangster,
tracked down one of Rajan's henchman, Balu Dokre, and murdered him in Rawang,
Kuala Kubu Baru.

A year later, The Hindu newspaper reported that an Indian underworld don,
Fazal-ur-Rehman, allegedly confessed to New Delhi police to having made
threatening telephone calls from Malaysia, to a saree tycoon at the behest of
the parents of popular Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty.

-- BERNAMA