Chennai: A special CBI court in Chennai on Thursday sentenced underworld don Chhota Rajan to seven years’ rigorous imprisonment after convicting him in a fake passport case dating back more than two decades. The court also imposed a fine of ₹55,000 on the gangster for fraudulently obtaining an Indian passport by using forged documents and a false identity.
The conviction relates to a case in which Rajan allegedly secured an Indian passport from the Regional Passport Office in Chennai by submitting fabricated documents and providing a fake residential address. During the process, he impersonated another individual and obtained the passport under the name ‘Vijaya Kadam’, investigators said.
The court found Rajan guilty of multiple offences, including cheating, forgery, impersonation and knowingly submitting forged documents to obtain an official government document. The prosecution argued that the accused deliberately created false records to conceal his identity and deceive the passport authorities.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had registered the case against Chhota Rajan on March 19, 2002, following allegations that he had fraudulently obtained the passport using fabricated credentials. A detailed investigation later established that the passport had been issued on the basis of forged documents, leading to the prosecution.
Once regarded as one of India’s most notorious underworld figures, Chhota Rajan was initially a close associate of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim. However, the two later parted ways, with Rajan emerging as one of Dawood’s fiercest rivals within the criminal underworld. Over the years, Rajan has faced several criminal cases across the country involving organised crime, extortion, murder and conspiracy.
Rajan is currently lodged in Tihar Jail in New Delhi, where he is serving a life sentence in another criminal case. The latest conviction adds to his existing prison term and marks the conclusion of a long-pending prosecution initiated by the CBI over the fraudulent passport obtained under a false identity.
