Chhota Rajan sat without an expression

Mumbai: A special court on Wednesday awarded life terms to incarcerated gangster Chhota Rajan and eight of his associates after convicting them for orchestrating the murder of senior crime journalist Jyoti Nipendrakumar Dey alias J. Dey (56).

The court convicted and sentenced nine accused to life imprisonment: Sadashiv Nikalje alias Chhota Rajan; Rohit Tangppan Joseph alias Rohi alias Satish Kaliyaalias Sir; Anil Bhanudas Waghmode; Abhijit Kashinath Shinde; Nilesh Narayan Shedge alias Babu; Arun Janardhan Dake; Mangesh Damodar Agawane; Sachin Suresh Gaikwad; and Deepak Dalbirsingh Sisodia.

On the request of special public prosecutor Pradeep Gharat, the judge directed that out of the fines recovered from the convicts, Rs 5 lakh should be paid to Dey’s sister Leena.

Mr Gharat had argued before the court that Leena was facing mental health issues and after the deaths of Dey — who was sole breadwinner of the family — and their mother there was nobody to look after her and hence the court should issue direction for payment of some part of the fine to her.

Two more accused, Nain Singh Bhist and Ravi Ram Rattesar, are still wanted in the case. Though the Dubai police arrested Rattesar in August 2016, he is yet to be brought to India to face trial.

According to the CBI, the reason behind Dey's murder was that Rajan was upset with news articles by Dey in which he had shown Rajan in a poor light and apart from that Dey was writing two books that not only showed Rajan in poor light, but also put archrival Dawood Ibrahim on a higher pedestal. 

About 155 witnesses deposed, of which seven were declared hostile. Rajan, who attended the court proceedings via video conferencing from Tihar jail in Delhi where he is being kept for security reasons, was emotionless when the court convicted him and he was expressionless even when judge Adkar asked him if he wanted to add anything, apart from what his lawyer had already argued, for leniency in sentence.