A special court in Mumbai today awarded life imprisonment to all the nine convicted, including gangster Chhota Rajan nearly seven years after senior journalist Jyotirmoy Dey was shot dead.

MCOCA court judge Sameer Adkar, however, acquitted former journalist Jigna Vora, who was charged with instigating Rajan to carry out the killing in 2011.

The judge also acquitted Paulson Joseph, who was accused of handling the financial operations concerned with the conspiracy.

The court imposed a fine of 26 lakh rupees on each of the convicts.

This is the first major conviction for Rajan since he was deported to India following his arrest at Bali airport in Indonesia in 2015.

Earlier last year, Rajan was convicted by a court in Delhi and sentenced to seven years imprisonment in a case of fake passports.

Dey was shot by two motorcycle-borne men on June 11, 2011 in suburban Powai when he was on his way to his residence. He worked as a senior editor for the tabloid, Mid Day.

According to the prosecution, the killing was carried out at the behest of Rajan, who was purportedly unhappy with the negative reports that Dey had been writing on his health and his diminishing clout in the underworld.