In a major development in the underworld, Santosh Shetty, a one-time close aide of Chhota Rajan, has declared war on him and vowed to end Rajan and his empire. Shetty had split with Rajan in 2004. He has formed a gang called SS Syndicate’ with his close associates.
According to intelligence sources, the SS syndicate has sent out a clear message to Rajan — that he has a new enemy and his empire will be destroyed in every manner possible. The syndicate has also warned that anyone associated with Rajan or supporting him would henceforth be in their radar, central agency sources informed.
According to police records, Shetty had joined hands with Rajan in 1994, immediately after the latter had split with Dawood Ibrahim. Shetty had helped Rajan to escape from Dubai (where Dawood had a stronghold) and find safe haven in South East Asia. “Soon after this, Shetty was caught in a narcotics case in India and spent five years in Nashik jail. It was here that he came in touch with Bharat Nepali, who was imprisoned for his involvement in the Datta Samant murder case,” a retired police officer from Mumbai said.
Shetty was acquitted from all charges in 1999. In 2000, along with Nepali, he shifted base to Bangkok. Chhota Rajan was already based in Bangkok with one of his key men, Rohit Verma.
On Sept 17, 2000 a near-fatal attack on the life of Rajan was made by Chhota Shakeel’s men. Rajan survived the attack but Verma was killed. An injured Rajan was admitted to a hospital under the watchful eyes of Thailand police. It was thanks to the daring efforts of Shetty and Nepali that Rajan managed to flee and save his life.
A daring effort by Shetty to whisk away Rajan from the hospital made him the most important member of the Rajan gang. And since 2000, he had been the mastermind in all operations and killings of the gang. However, in 2004, Shetty and Rajan parted ways over some financial issues. In 2008, Nepali too parted ways with Rajan following a rift. Nepali then joined hands with Shetty. However, Nepali started becoming too big for his shoes and wanted to kill a very close associate of Shetty. That is when Shetty decided to get rid of Nepali, the officer said.
According to intelligence sources, it had been a conscious decision taken by Shetty to remain in the background when he was with Rajan and later with Nepali. But now he seems to have decided to take centre stage.
