Nearly seven years after senior journalist J Dey was shot dead, a Special Court here on Wednesday convicted underworld don Chhota Rajan alias Rajendra Sadashiv Nikalje and eight others for the sensational murder and sentenced them to life imprisonment, while it acquitted journalist Jigna Vora and another accused for lack of evidence.
"Theek hai (alright)," was the brief reaction of Rajan, who was witnessing the proceedings through a video-conferencing facility from Delhi, when Additional Sessions Judge Sameer Adkar pronounced sentence on him in the sensational murder case in a jam-packed courtroom.
Wednesday’s was the major conviction that an Indian court has handed out to Rajan ever since he was arrested in Bali airport in Indonesia and brought to New Delhi on November 6, 2015. Earlier last year, Rajan — who is currently lodged at Tihar Jail in New Delhi — had been convicted and sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment by a Delhi court in a fake passports’ case.
Judge Adkar, who presides over a Special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court here, imposed a fine of Rs 26 lakh each of the convicts, except Deepak Sisodia.
Apart from Rajan, eight others who were handed out life imprisonment by the MCOCA court were Rohee Thangappan Joseph alias Satish Kalya, Abhijeet Shinde, Arun Dake, Sachin Gaikwad, Anil Waghmode, Nilesh Shendge, Mangesh Agawane and Deepak Sisodia.
Holding that the Prosecution had failed to prove charges against, the court acquitted journalist Jigna Vora, the then Deputy Bureau Chief of Mumbai edition of The Asian Age, who had been charged with instigating Chhota Rajan, into ordering the killing of senior crime journalist Dey, following some professional rivalry between two media persons.
Vora broke down in the courtroom after the judge pronounced her acquittal in the case. The court also acquitted Paulson Joseph, who had allegedly provided SIM cards to the co-accused and arranged finances, for lack of adequate evidence.
Earlier in the day, the court found guilty and convicted Rajan and eight other accused for charges framed against them under 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder), 204 (destruction of evidence) of the IPC, 3 (1) (i), 3 (2), 3 (4) of MCOCA and relevant provisions of the Arms Act.
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. The investigations had revealed that Dey was bumped off at the behest of Rajan.
"Dey was a journalist, who represented the fourth pillar of democracy...this should be treated as a rarest of the rare case. A strong message needs to be go out," Special Public Prosecutor Pradeep Gharat told the court, while arguing on the quantum of sentences to be given to the convicts in the case.