Chhota Rajan, 8 others get life for J Dey murder

MUMBAI: A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Wednesday sentenced gangster Chhota Rajan and eight others to life imprisonment for the murder of journalist Jyotirmoy Dey.

“The murder of J Dey was a cold-blooded act,” the court said in its order and defined it as “an organized crime committed by the Organized Crime Syndicate of the accused… Chhota Rajan.” Journalist Jigna Vora and another suspect were acquitted for lack of evidence.

Rajendra Sadashiv Nikalje, who is better known by his alias Chhota Rajan, headed an organised crime syndicate in Mumbai and is a former associate of gangster Dawood Ibrahim. He fled India in 1993 and after more than two decades on the run, Chhota Rajan was arrested in Indonesia and extradited to India in 2015. He is wanted in more than 15 cases of murder, criminal conspiracy and other offences.

On June 11, 2011, Dey was on his way home when he was gunned down by men on motorbikes in Powai, in suburban Mumbai. Rohit Thangappan (alias Satish Kalia), Anil Waghmode, Abhijeet Shinde, Nilesh Shendge, Arun Dake, Mangesh Agawane and Sachin Gaikwad had followed Dey home. Thangappan shot Dey with a .32 bore pistol.

There were no eyewitnesses to the incident even though it happened in a public spot.

Dey was Editor (Investigations) at Mid-day newspaper and according to the CBI, the journalist’s articles on the Mumbai underworld had angered Rajan. Between January and March 2011, Rajan contacted Dey numerous times because the gangster felt Dey was belittling him in his writings. Rajan took particular offence to Dey describing him as “chindi” (petty) in a book on Mumbai’s gangsters that Dey was planning to publish. Just a month before his murder, Dey had tried to interview Rajan for the book, but this meeting ultimately did not take place. Instead, Rajan issued orders to eliminate the journalist “to send a message to the journalist community,” according to the CBI investigation.

The prosecution alleged that Vora had instigated Rajan into ordering Dey’s murder. However, the court stated that the prosecution had failed to prove her involvement. Vora and Paulson Joseph, a member of Rajan’s gang, were acquitted because there was insufficient evidence against them.

Rajan, Kalia, Waghmode, Shinde, Shedge, Dake, Agawane, Gaikwad, Deepak Sisodia and Vinod Asrani (who died during the trial) were all convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. The court also imposed a heavy fine against the convicted.

Arup Patnaik, who was Police Comissioner of Mumbai at the time of Dey’s murder, said: “I feel relieved. This is the first time that an underworld don has been convicted in a regular (murder) case.”

The murder was a coldblooded act... an organized crime committed by the Organized Crime Syndicate of the accused… Chhota Rajan. THE SPECIAL CBI COURT