Like father, not like daughter. Anita Nikhalje, daughter of the most wanted Chhota Rajan, has got admission in undergraduate courses at two top universities abroad, and expects to be called from another couple of places.

Anita, of whom very little is known, passed her Class 10 exam with 80% marks from Fatima High School, a reputed Christian convent in the central Mumbai suburb of Vidya Vihar, in 2005. She is said to be a bright, studious girl who never visited her mother, Sujata Nikhalje, in prison or in court after she was arrested under MCOCA the same year on charges of running her fugitive gangster husband’s syndicate of organised crime in India.

Sujata, out on bail since last year, has filed an appeal in a special court, seeking permission to go abroad to help Anita get admitted. The application, likely to be heard on October 18, says the University of Leeds in Britain and the University of Melbourne in Australia had earlier this year given Anita “unconditional offers to pursue a BSc course in Psychology after going through her credentials”.

However, Anita lost the chance because she couldn’t visit the campuses in the absence of a chaperone. Sujata has pleaded that Anita now expects offers from Singapore Management University and the City University of Hong Kong next month, and she should be allowed to accompany her daughter abroad. She has also asked for a lifting of the freeze on one of her bank accounts so that she can fund her daughter's education abroad.