Chhota Rajan, 8 others get life for ‘cold-blooded murder’ of J Dey

MUMBAI: In the first major conviction for gangster Chhota Rajan, a special court on Wednesday sentenced him and eight others to life imprisonment for the 2011 murder of J Dey, a crime journalist. Former journalist and sole woman accused Jigna Vora (42), alleged to be the “instigator”, and Paulson Joseph, a SIM card supplier, were acquitted.
Rajan, 61, ordered the hit as he was upset with the journalist’s writings, which showed him in poor light, said the court, and fined the accused a total of Rs 2.23 crore. Of it, Rs 5 lakh was to be paid to Dey’s sister Lina Dey. While cartridge supplier Deepak Sisodia was fined Rs 15 lakh, all the other accused were ordered to pay Rs 26 lakh each.

On June 11, 2011, Dey was gunned down by bike-borne assassins in Powai. A month later, the crime branch arrested 10 accused for their alleged role in executing or abetting the murder at the behest of Rajan for a contracted amount of Rs 2 lakh.

On Wednesday, the court held 8 accused—Rajan, sharpshooter Rohit Tangappa alias Satish Kalya, 42, Arun Dake, 32, Anil Waghmode, 42, Mangesh Aagavane, 31, Sachin Gaikwad, 33, Abhijeet Shinde, 32, and Nilesh Shedge, 40 — guilty of conspiracy, murder, and committing the murder as part of organized crime. It acquitted the ninth, Sisodia from Uttarakhand, of murder but held him guilty of criminal conspiracy under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), like Rajan and the others. One accused, Vinod Asrani, died pending trial and two are still absconding.

While Jigna, Paulson and Sisodia were out on bail, the others have been in custody since their 2011 arrest.

Rajan was produced via video-conferencing from Tihar jail in Delhi where he has been lodged after he was deported from Indonesia in November 2015.

After the conviction was pronounced in the first half of the proceedings, the court explained it to Rajan in Marathi. The gangster nodded and said, “Theek aahe (It’s ok).”

Journalist J Dey Was Killed Because Gangster Doubted His Honesty, Says Court

In a 599-page judgment copy made available to the accused in the J Dey murder case, special judge Sameer S Adkar said, “The prosecution has proved that the murder of J Dey was committed in a well-planned manner and in pursuance of criminal conspiracy. It was an organised crime committed by the organised crime syndicate of Chhota Rajan. Five bullets were fired at Dey. The murder of Dey was a cold-blooded act.” Special public prosecutor Pradeep Gharat had examined 155 witnesses during the trial.

The prosecution also proved recovery of revolver, cartridges, a four-wheeler, three motorcycles, mobile phones and SIM cards from various accused, including sharpshooter Kalya and Rajan. “The accused were entitled to rebut the presumption — under MCOCA — by adducing necessary evidence but, unfortunately, instead of doing so, they chose to be in denial mode,” said the judgment.

The court relied on witness statements of four TV journalists to whom Rajan made phone calls confessing his guilt. His extra-judicial confessions were crucial in the conviction. “The prosecution has proved that Rajan got Dey murdered as he was not happy with what Dey was writing against him and because [he believed] Dey was working for ISI and Dawood,” the court said, adding Dey was murdered as Rajan doubted his honesty. “By committing murder of Dey, who was a reputed journalist, a clear message was sent to the media and through the media to the general public and the rivals that the organised crime syndicate of Rajan was very much alive and kicking, that nobody should dare to say anything against him and if anybody dared to do so, then he would meet the same fate as J Dey,” the court added.

The court called the TV journalists’ evidence “cogent, trustworthy and reliable”. “They were independent witnesses. There was no reason for them to depose falsely. There is no evidence to show that there was any previous concert between these witnesses to falsely implicate the accused Rajan,” the court observed.

The proceedings began post-noon in a packed courtroom. After the accused were convicted, their lawyers — Prakash Shetty, Avinash Rasal, Rajendra Rathod, S M Deshpande, Anshuman Sinha and Hasnain Kazi — submitted mitigating circumstances such as age, family circumstances and financial problems to seek leniency.

Gharat sought maximum sentence, saying, “The accused are required to be dealt with firmly. The press is the fourth pillar of democracy. The murder was nothing but an attack on the fourth pillar... death penalty should be imposed.” He sought compensation for Dey’s sister. Vora, who spent almost 10 months in jail after her 2011 arrest, broke down after she was acquitted. The ex-scribe was accused of instigating Rajan against Dey. The court said there was no trustworthy evidence against her. Kalya, found guilty of pumping bullets into Dey, kept smiling in disbelief. “I am stunned. I will now file an appeal,” he said. Sisodia had said he was not aware the revolver and cartridges were to be used for Dey’s murder. While stating there might be truth to this, the court said, “He was fully aware as to what purposes such weapons are used.”