Mumbai, Oct 29 (IANS): The CBI has initiated probe in five new cases lodged by Mumbai Police against gangster Chhota Rajan, including those related to his initial days when he was working as alleged bootlegger with his mentor Rajan Nair alias Bada Rajan over three decades ago.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) took over the matter and registered separate FIRs in these cases which were registered by the Mumbai Police in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.

Of the five cases, one was registered by Mumbai Police on November 21, 1980 when Chhota Rajan, along with his mentor Nair, and accomplices Abdul and Ramesh Sharma had allegedly stabbed Anthony Fernandes, who was waiting for a rickshaw at the Ram Narkar road in the evening.

Nair was reportedly killed in 1982, following which Rajan Sadashiv Nikalje alias Chhota Rajan took over the leadership of the gang. The other was lodged by the Mumbai Police in 1983 when the state police had arrested Chhota Rajan during an alleged bootlegging operation in which he and his accomplices attempted to escape in a taxi. The gangster attacked two policemen with a knife when they tried to hold him inside the moving taxi.

The CBI has also taken over two cases pertaining to extortion by Chhota Rajan's gang from builders Haresh Matani on October 31, 2000 and Gajanana Ganpat Jadhav in 2002. The

The agency also took over the investigator into the alleged abduction of a lawyer, Punamchand Malu, in 1998.

With these five First Information Reports (FIRs), the number of cases against Chhota Rajan being probed by the agency has increased to 76. Soon after the arrest of Chhota Rajan on October 25, 2015 after his deportation from Indonesia, based on Interpol Red Corner Notice, the Maharashtra government had handed over 71 cases to the CBI.