A day after Delhi police chief Dr K K Paul held a press conference to announce the arrest of Fazal-ur-Rahman from the Indian-Nepal border and touted it as one of the biggest achievements for his police force, his juniors think this was not a fit case for Dr Paul to hold a press conference.
"Who is Fazal-ur-Rahman?" one of them asked. "An extortionist who went to Dubai and suddenly became big overnight. He kidnaps someone, asks for Rs 10 crore, then settles for Rs 1 crore and sometimes even less. If he had not gone to Dubai, he would not have been projected as a big catch. It is an important catch, but certainly not a big one," said another officer who once held a key position in operations against terrorism.
Delhi police has about one dozen cases against Rahman and there are cases against him in Gujarat and Mumbai as well.
According to the top police officers, he was wanted in over 100 cases and in 20 cases, he was declared the proclaimed offender.
To give himself a new identity, Fazal-ur-Rahman had adopted the name of Ching Chong and was living under the assumed name when he was arrested from Sonouli on the Indo-Nepal border.
"He fled to Dubai on a fake passport in 1999 from where he controlled and ran the extortion racket," Dr Paul told newsmen at a press conference on Monday evening.
Rahman's biggest case was the kidnapping of Gautam Adani, chairman of Adani group, and a sum of $1.5 million was given to him for Adani's release. He was also allegedly involved in the Shilpa Shetty case.
"He maintained excellent relations with Chotta Rajan and Babloo Srivastava. He would pick up local gangsters and do the kidnapping and then extort money," Delhi police officers admitted.
Police parties from Mumbai and Gujarat are expected to arrive in Delhi on Tuesday or Wednesday to interrogate Rahman in connection with the cases registered against him.