Chhota Rajan or not Chhota Rajan? How the CBI has hoodwinked one and all

After being on the run since 1988, Chhota Rajan was brought back to India early on Friday morning, and whisked straight to the CBI headquarters.

The CBI used a decoy car to whisk away Chhota Rajan from the glare of media eyes as he arrived. But an English news daily now reports that that's not the only decoy the CBI has been using.

A person of the same height and build as the real Rajan has been roped in to confuse possible attackers.

Indian intelligence agencies had spent several days searching high and low for a Doppelganger to shadow Rajan. The idea was to confuse potential attackers, since Rajan has threats from high-profile criminals. But the lookalike, Dummy Rajan, has been at work since 6 am on Friday, ahead of the criminal's arrival at IGI Airport in Delhi.

The dummy Rajan's job is accompanying the original Rajan wherever he is taken from his detention centre - whether to court, hospital or in front of the media. 

To further cause confusion, both Rajans will wear similar masks while being taken around in similar vehicles for any purpose. What's more, if the real Rajan is admitted to hospital due to a worsening kidney problem, his doppleganger will also be admitted to a separate room which looks just the same, with the same facilities. A highly specialised and trustworthy team of doctors and other medical personnel has thus been assembled to treat the real Rajan.

The Indian intelligence agencies believes that threat to the real Rajan comes not just from Dawood Ibrahim and his associates, but also from certain political entities and a handful of 'law-enforcement personnel'.

This is the reason Rajan has been kept away from Mumbai, despite the Maharashtra government and Mumbai Police pleading for him to be brought in.