being arrested in Bali. The special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime
Act (MCOCA) court on Wednesday convicted gangster Chhota Rajan and nine
others in the case involving the murder of veteran journalist Jyotirmoy Dey.Mumbai Seven years after underworld don Rajendra Sadashiv Nikhalje, alias
Chhota Rajan, was deported to India, out of the 71 cases registered against
the gangster in Mumbai only 14 remain pending.The pending cases includes the murder of union leader Datta Samant in 1997;
a case registered against Rajan and also his wife for threatening builders
and businessman in the city for extortion.
Recently Rajan was acquitted in a case registered in 2009 where he was
booked for firing at Zahid Gulam Hasan Mir alias Chhote Miyan who was
linked to D gang. In the Mir firing incident another person, Arshad
Hussain, had also died. With Rajan’s acquittal in this case, only 14 cases
are left pending against him, his lawyer Tushar Khandhare said.
He has been so far acquitted in five cases as the prosecution failed to
bring witnesses or the witnesses failed to support the prosecution case.
Besides this, earlier this year, Rajan was discharged from the murder of
Bandra businessman Majid Khan, owner of MK Builders, who was allegedly
killed by the Rajan gang on March 1, 1999. While discharging him, the court
had observed that, “there is no sufficient and cogent evidence brought on
record by the prosecution to proceed the trial against the accused. To
proceed the trial, on the basis of the material in the form of charge-sheet
submitted by Mumbai Police against the applicant/accused, will be a futile
attempt and wastage of the time of this Court.”
Meanwhile, Rajan was sentenced to life imprisonment in May 2018, for his
role in the murder of journalist J Dey in June 2011. His appeal in the case
is pending before the Bombay high court. He is presently lodged in Tihar
Jail in Delhi. The CBI had insisted that Rajan should not be brought to
Mumbai for security reasons. Hence since his arrest Rajan has been lodged
in Tihar.
Besides the murder case of J Dey, Rajan has been convicted in three other
cases which include the murder case of rival gangster Farid Tanasha, firing
at hotelier BR Shetty and firing at bookie-turned-builder Ajay Gosalia.
Rajan had also sought discharge from the murder case of Anil Sharma. The
court rejected his plea but has dropped the charges of MCOCA from the case.
Sharma was allegedly shot by the members of the Rajan gang on September 2,
1999, while he was in his car driven by complainant Sanju Shah near Teli
Galli cross lane in Andheri. The prosecution had claimed that Sharma was
one of the members of the team that carried out a shootout in JJ hospital
on September 12, 1992. The shooting was allegedly carried out by members of
the Dawood Ibrahim gang.
Besides, Rajan was also discharged from the case of killing hotelier
Narayan Venkat Pujari at Rawalpada junction in Dahisar East on October 30,
1999.
Apart from that, the CBI also closed the murder case of KT Thapa for want
of evidence. Thapa, a Shiv Sena corporator was shot dead outside a petrol
pump in Bhandup in 1991.
After Rajan was deported from Bali in November 2015, the centre issued a
notification on November 21, 2015, transferring all cases against him to
CBI. Of the 71 cases against him, CBI has filed closure report in 46 before
the special MCOCA and magistrate courts set up to try the gangster. The
cases which are closed were mostly old cases of gang rivalry and murders of
businessmen who refused to give in to Rajan’s demands.
