Only 14 of 71 cases against Chhota Rajan pending

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.