Extradited gangster Bunty Pandey granted bail

Gangster Chhota Rajan's former henchman Prakash alias Bunty Pandey, facing trial in two extortion cases, was today released on bail by a court here which termed the probe by Delhi Police as "shabby" and "just a sham".

"The applicant (Pandey) is in judicial custody for more than eight months. I cannot allow his further incarceration on the basis of very shaky material (collected by the probe agency)," Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vinod Yadav said.

While granting him bail on a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh and a surety of like amount, the court also came down heavily on the prosecution for a shabby investigation.

"The investigation is just a sham. I am not at all happy. It is shabby and lacks coherence," Yadav said and added, "You are saying he is an international criminal and has been deported from Vietnam and then you conduct such an investigation. It lacks connectivity."

Pandey, son of a former army subedar, had allegedly demanded Rs 50 lakh from a Delhi-based businessman.

He was deported from Vietnam to Mumbai on November 3, 2010 and then brought to the national capital in connection with the extortion case.

The prosecution said Pandey had made threat calls to the businessman from Vietnam. The FIR was registered in the case in 2009.

Pandey was allegedly associated with Chhota Rajan and later parted with him. He is also said to have made extortion calls to Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan.

Pandey, along with Rajan, was allegedly involved in several murders including that of managing director of East-West Airlines Thakiyuddin Wahid.

He was deported to Mumbai on November 3 last year after the police learned that he stayed in Vietnam under a pseudonym Vijay Subhash Sharma.

Police said Pandey had posed as a labour contractor in Vietnam and continued to make threat calls to his targets in Mumbai demanding huge extortion amounts.

The prosecution opposed his bail plea saying he has been a part of the underworld gangs but Pandey's counsel Vikas Padora submitted that he should not be kept in jail only on the ground of long list of cases against him and that the police has failed to make any headway in the probe in extortion cases against him.

Pandey, a native of Uttarakhand, has 34 cases against him including murder, attempt to murder, criminal intimidation and extortion.

He was booked under stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act in two cases in 2008.

He was holding a passport issued by the Indian Embassy in Cambodia and had allegedly smuggled 16 people from Uttar Pradesh into Vietnam on the pretext of providing them jobs.