The CBI has taken over investigations into three more criminal cases relating to the extradited underworld gangster Chhota Rajan, following a request from the Maharashtra Government.
Acting on the State Government’s request and a subsequent notification issued by the Centre, the CBI has registered three separate cases and begun to investigate the cases.
The first case that the CBI has taken over relates to a cases registered earlier by the Nirmal Nagar Police in Mumbai in 1999. In this case, three aides of Chhota Rajan, who identified themselves as Rohit, John and Ashok, had made threatening calls to the complainant and demanded money to the tune of Rs25 lakh. The Nirmal Nagar Police had booked the trio under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
In the second case, two unidentified persons-allegedly the members of Chhota Raja gang-had shot dead one Bala Kotian and injured his friend in an incident that took place on October 7, 1998.
In the third case, three members of the Chhota Rajan gang had barged into the office of the complainant at Mulund in north-east Mumbai on November 16, 2004, assaulted him and his servant and also demanded money from him at gun-point. The Mulund Police had registered a case against the three gangsters under MCOCA.
Fifty-five-year-old Rajan, who was arrested in Bali on his arrival from Australia on October 25 and flown to Delhi in the early hours of November 6 last year, is wanted by the Maharashtra Police in at least 70 cases of crimes ranging from murder, attempts to murder, extortion, smuggling and drug trafficking.
One of the main cases in which Rajan is being tried relates to the murder of senior journalist J Dey. The CBI, which took over the investigations from the Mumbai police, registered a case against Chhota Rajan and others, in the J Dey murder case on January 5, 2016.
Nearly four weeks after the CBI filed a charge-sheet against Rajan and his accomplice Ravi Ram Rattesar in the J Dey murder case, a MCOCA court had on August 31, 2016 framed charges against the underworld don, thus setting the stage for start of a trial of all the 12 accused in the much-discussed case.
Fifty-six-year-old Dey, who was an Editor (Special Investigations) with “Mid-Day”, was gunned down by a group of motorbike-riding gangsters at Powai in north-east Mumbai on June 11, 2011. Investigations have revealed that Dey was bumped off at the behest of Rajan.
The Prosecution’s case has been that Jigna Vora, a fellow journalist, had allegedly instigated Chhota Rajan, into ordering the killing of senior crime journalist Dey, following some professional rivalry between two media persons.