Chhota Rajan: From talkie tout to dreaded don

Rajan Sadashiv Nikalje, known as Chhota Rajan, was born in a lower middle class family at Tilak Nagar in Chembur. His father worked in a pharmaceutical company and his mother was a housewife. He had two brothers, Deepak and Prakash, and a sister Sunita. He studied up to Std V in a local municipal school.
He entered the world of crime in 1974-75.

He started with selling movie tickets in black outside Sahakar theatre under local gang leader Rajan Nair alias Bada Rajan. The gang also collected haftas from gambling and matka den owners and bootleggers. He came into limelight when he and Bada Rajan assaulted inspector S Sarmalkar of Tilak Nagar police station near Glass Factory at Chembur in 1979. Bada Rajan, Chhota Rajan and other gang members were arrested and released on bail after a few days.

After Bada Rajan was killed at a Mumbai court’s premises in 1983 by rival gangsters, Chhota Rajan came into prominence and started operating the gang from Tilak Nagar.

Sources said that Bada Rajan had sent David Pardeshi dressed as a lawyer to kill his rival Alamzeb in court. To avenge that, the

Dawood gang sent Chandrashekar Safaliga dressed as a navy officer to kill Bada Rajan in court.

Once a close aide of Dawood, Chhota Rajan became his biggest enemy after the Mumbai serial bomb blasts in 1993. Accusing Dawood of communalism, Rajan left his gang to form a separate one. Rajan vowed to kill the 1993 blasts accused. He eliminated Saleem Kurla, Mohammed Jindran and Majeed Khan. Positioning himself as a “Hindu don”, he collaborated with Indian agencies to destabilise Dawood’s base in Mumbai and India.

His wife Sujata, known as Nani, now controls his business empire, including his construction business, from their Tilak Nagar home.