Cops finally catch up with don Santosh Shetty

Former Chhota Rajan aide and fugitive gangster, constantly on the hop, was arrested in Mumbai after being deported from Bangkok

Former Chhota Rajan associate and alleged drug smuggler Santosh Shetty alias Anna was arrested in Mumbai yesterday, after being brought to the city from Bangkok.


Santosh Shetty shot into prominence after the murder of Rajan
aide Farid Tanasha at his residence in Chembur. Shetty is also
allegedly involved in the murder of advocate Shahid Azmi

He was produced in court and remanded to police custody till August 17.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Himanshu Roy confirmed the arrest to media persons yesterday.
"Shetty was arrested by the Bangkok police last week.
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He has been deported to Mumbai for questioning related to various crimes committed by his gang since 1990," said Roy.

According to Roy, Mumbai police was on the hunt for Shetty for the last six months.

The gangster was constantly on the move, hopping between his hideouts in Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Tehran and Bangkok. He is wanted for several cases, including contract killings and drug smuggling.

Shetty, who figures in the country's most-wanted list, was arrested by the Thailand police last week and deported to Mumbai.

According to police, he had gone to a pub in the Thai capital to meet some businessmen on August 4, when the local police raided the bar.
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They suspected his passport to be fake and arrested him. His passport is reportedly in the name of one Nicolas Sharma.

Shetty, who was born in 1966 in Warden Road in Mumbai, is a Mumbai University graduate. He began his underworld career with smuggling in 1990.

Arrested in 1994 in a narcotics case, he was sent to the Nasik jail, where he networked with dons Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Rajan. But he broke up with Rajan to float his own outfit called SS Syndicate in 2004.

He shot into prominence after the murder of Rajan aide Farid Tanasha last year.

In 2009, he tied up with Bharat Nepali to allegedly gun down lawyer Shahid Azmi, who was representing 26/11 accused Fahim Ansari in the court.

When Nepali tied up with Rajan to bump off Shetty after they fell out, he got wind of the plan, and in October 2010, he called Nepali to a Bangkok hotel and allegedly killed him.