A special CBI court on Wednesday convicted underworld gangster Chhota Rajan and nine others of killing senior journalist J Dey seven years ago. The court, however, acquitted journalist Jigna Vora and Paulson Joseph, a member of Rajan’s gang in the murder case.
Other than Rajan, those convicted include Rohit Thangappan alias Satish Kalia, Anil Waghmode, Abhijit Shinde, Nilesh Shedge, Arun Dhake, Mangesh Agawane, Sachin Gaikwad, Deepak Sisodia and Vinod Asrani who died during the trial. The sentencing is set for 5 pm.
Dey, who was Editor (Investigations) of Midday was shot dead on June 11, 2011 when he was on his way home in Powai. According to the prosecution, gangster Chhota Rajan’s men, Satish Kalia, Anil Waghmode, Abhijeet Shinde, Nilesh Shendge, Arun Dake, Mangesh Agawane and Sachin Gaikwad, had followed Dey from his mother’s house. Kalia shot him with a .32 bore pistol near Powai garden before he and the gang fled.
The prosecution said Dey was shot on the orders of Rajan, who was allegedly instigated by another journalist Jigna Vora, who worked with a different newspaper at the time. The mafia don was deported from Indonesia’s Bali in November 2015 and subsequently made an accused in the case.
Arup Patnaik who was the Mumbai police commissioner the time of the murder, said: “I feel relieved. This is the first time that an underworld don has been convicted in a regular (murder) case.”
Speaking of the acquittals, he said: “Whether the acquittals of (Jigna and Paulson) were on technical grounds or based on facts will be known only after obtaining a copy of the order. Anyway, I am sure the CBI will appeal against it in the higher court.”
According to the CBI, Dey was working on books for which he was meeting members of all the gangs which also included those of Dawood Ibrahim’s. The agency claimed that Rajan did not appreciate Dey’s connections with Dawood’s gang and suspected him of leaking his information.
The dispute allegedly started with Dey’s proposed book on the life of 20 gangsters. He had proposed that the book be named Chindi – Rags to Riches.
According to the CBI, between January and March 2011, Rajan tried several times to dissuade Dey from belittling him through his stories. Rajan particularly tried to dissuade Dey from writing Chindi — Rags to Riches and another untitled one that eulogised gangster Dawood Ibrahim. Rajan feared that the books would show him in poor light.
The investigating had also said that in order to complete the book, Dey had requested Rajan to meet him during his visits to London and Philippines just a month before his murder. Instead, an angry Rajan decided to order the journalist’s murder.
The agency claimed that the last trigger for the final plot was his two articles – One was headlined ‘Did Rajan plan hit on Kaskar’, which said, “Sources believe that ageing gangster may have plotted the shoot out as a desperate attempt to seize a lion’s claim in the underworld pie.” The other article was titled ‘Rajan gangsters off to pilgrimages’.
The crime branch claimed that such articles had the potential to undermine Rajan’s illegal activities such as extortion and collection of protection money. It claimed that he had issued orders to eliminate the journalist to “to send a message to the journalistic community”.
Source: Hindustan Times