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Chhota Rajan's key aide arrested in Bangkok

August 12, 2011 12:38 IST

Fugitive gangster and drug smuggler Santosh Shetty has been arrested in Bangkok by the Thailand police. Mumbai crime branch officials took him into custody on Thursday and will bring him back to Mumbai.

Once the right hand man of Chhota Rajan who featured on the country's most-wanted list, Shetty is a suspect in the February 2009 killing of lawyer Shahid Azmi, who was representing suspects in the 11/7 serial train blasts, the November 2010 killing of Rajan henchman Farid Tanasha and the October 2010 killing of gangster Bharat Nepali in a Bangkok hotel.

The arrest of Shetty, alias Anna, occurred on Thursday night in a beer bar after he got into a brawl with a few businessmen.

A source in Bangkok said the don gave the police a fake passport at the bar, before being booked for assault. The police later raided his home and found his real passport.

After checking their records, they found that he was wanted by the Interpol because of crimes committed in Mumbai.

A Correspondent in Mumbai