Malayali don Pillai held in Singapore, brought to Mumbai

Mumbai: A fugitive having roots in Kerala was extradited from Singapore and brought here, 19 years after he had fled the country.
Kumar Krishna Pillai, born to a Malayali couple settled in Vikhroli here, left the country after murdering his father’s killer, Lalsingh Chavan, in 1997. Chavan had allegedly killed Pillai’s father to grab his property. After leaving India, Pillai settled in China, and through his extortion syndicate established a mobile phone business, now worth Rs 100 crore.Meanwhile, he took his wife Kalpana to China and the couple had a daughter, now aged 18 and studying in Hong Kong.
Pillai, police said, had bought properties in Singapore and Hong Kong. He had been in the custody of the Singapore police, who handed him over to the city crime branch. He was brought here late on Monday.
The city crime branch had carried along with them copies of first information reports, statements of complainants and witnesses, fingerprints, old photographs, court documents and DNA of his old mother to present their case before the Singapore authorities.
“We are grateful to the Singapore authorities, who after verifying our documents, were very helpful in extraditing Pillai, though there is no official treaty. It was an arrangement,” said a senior officer. The top cops were surprised as a top lawyer represented Pillai and argued that he was not the person the Mumbai Police were looking for.
His lawyer furnished business documents to show he was one of the top mobile phone and accessories dealers in Hong Kong, besides documents showing he was a Hong Kong citizen paying the highest taxes to the government. The police said that immediately after Pillai’s news was flashed, his mother flew down to Singapore and met him.
“We furnished details from the voters’ list of him and his wife Kalpana. His lawyer then fumbled. It was the turning point in the case,” said deputy commissioner of police Dhananjay Kulkarni.
The CBI and MEA had got gangster Abu Salem extradited from Portugal in 2005.