Chhota Rajan aide Shatlya a big catch for Mumbai Police

Mumbai: The arrest of gangster Nilesh Dinkar Paradkar alias Shatlya, a close aide of underworld don Chhota Rajan, is being seen as a big catch for police as he was handling the gang's activities in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai.

Shatlya was arrested on Tuesday from his residence in Tilak Nagar in an extortion case involving a builder, in which Rajan and his another associate Raghu Shetty are also wanted.

According to the police, Shatlya was a big catch for them as he was handling Mumbai and Navi Mumbai operations of the Rajan gang.

He was heading the octroi mafia at Mulund, Thane and Navi Mumbai. This had led to rivalry between Shatlya and erstwhile octroi mafia men like Paresh Nanda, Shiva Gaikwad and Kiran Pujari, informed sources in the police said.

Early this year, Shatlya allegedly threatened a prominent Mumbai NCP leader.

On September 23 2012, Shatlya was arrested from Tilak Nagar, part of Rajan's home turf Chembur, by Thane Crime Branch for allegedly masterminding the shootout on Shiv Sena leader Rajesh Ghadge on July 13 the same year, said police.

He was booked under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), said police, adding he was released on bail after a year.

After the killing of Rajan's sharp-shooter Farid Tanasha inside his home at Tilak Nagar on June 2, 2010, Shatlya emerged as the 'right-hand man' of Rajan, who is out of India for over two decades and was arrested in Bali, Indonesia late last month.

He has served jail sentence for firing at film financier Bharat Shah in early 2000. Post the killing of Tanasha, Shatlya become a key man of Rajan in Tilak Nagar and spread terror among real estate giants in Central Mumbai and eastern suburbs of the city, said police.

Apart from collecting protection and extortion money from the realtors, Shatlya used to pressure builders to hire his men for work at their real estate projects, police said.