Mumbai: In a startling revelation, underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's former lawyer has said that Dawood wanted to surrender to Indian authorities but had set the same conditions as Chhota Rajan.
'When Dawood wanted to surrender he had also asked for the same conditions which Rajan has asked now', said Shyam Keswani, the former lawyer of Dawood. Referring to a previous statement of India's top lawyer Ram Jethmalani, he said 'as Jethmalani claimed Dawood & Shakeel wanted to surrender only if they are not lodged in Arthur road jail'.
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Jethmalani has claimed that Dawood wanted to come back to India and surrender but on the condition that he be put under house arrest and not be lodged in a jail as he feared for his life. The senior lawyer also claimed that Sharad Pawar, who was the then Chief Minister of Maharashtra had refused the dreaded don's offer to surrender.
"Ram Jethmalani had given a proposition that's true, but it was conditional. He had put such a condition wherein Dawood would not have been arrested if he had come to India. You cannot not arrest a person who has so many cases against him. Everybody needs to follow the law but Jethmalani ji did not accept the suggestion," Pawar had said.
There has been speculation that Chhota Rajan, who was arrested in Bali last month, will not be put in a Mumbai jail due to the high threat perception to his life. Many members of the Dawood gang and other influential people in the city want the most-wanted gangster dead, according to an assessment report prepared by the police.
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