A Special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court will on May 2 deliver its verdict in the sensational 2011 senior journalist J Dey murder case, in which incarcerated underworld gangster Chhota Rajan is a key accused.
Nearly seven years after Dey was gunned down by a group of motorbike-riding gangsters allegedly at the orders of Rajan, MCOCA court’s Additional Sessions Judge Sameer Adkar on Tuesday fixed May 2 as the date for delivering the verdict in the much-discussed case.
Apart from Chhota Rajan, the other accused in the case are former journalist Jigna Vora, Rohee Thangappan Joseph alias Satish Kalya, Abhijeet Shinde, Arun Dake, Sachin Gaikwad, Anil Waghmode, Nilesh Shendge, Mangesh Agawane, Vinod Asrani, Paulson Joseph and Deepak Sisodia.
Of the total 12 accused, one accused Vinod Chembur alias Vinod Asrani, a real estate dealer and a bookie from Chembur, who was the main financer and co-conspirator, passed away on April 11 2016 following multiple ailments.
Chhota Rajan alias Rajendra Sadashiv Nikalje is currently lodged at the Tihar Central jail in Delhi, while ex-journalist Jigna Vora and other accused are in custody in Mumbai jail under MCOCA charges.
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.
In all, 155 persons deposed as witnesses in the case. Three accused--Paulson Joseph, Deepak Sisodia and Arun Dake—confessed to their involvement in the crime, in keeping with the provisions of MCOCA. On his part, Rajan claimed that he had been falsely implicated in the case and told the Special court on January 29 this year that underworld don Dawood Ibrahim – with whom he had been associated till 1993, police and politicians had colluded to get false cases registered against him.
On August 31, 2016, the MCOCA court framed charges against Chhota Rajan, after he was produced before it through video-conferencing from Delhi’sTihar Central prison where he is lodged.
According to the charge-sheet filed in the case, Rajan had not taken kindly to articles written by Dey against him, the book “Chindi-Rags to riches” planned by him, in which the latter was to portray the gangster as “chindi” (small fry). The book Rajan planned to write contained stories of 20 gangsters with humble origins. Rajan had disapproved of Dey’s alleged proximity to Karachi-based don and his arch rival Dawood Ibrahim.
The Prosecution’s case has been that Vora, who was then deputy bureau chief of the Mumbai edition of "Asian Age", had allegedly instigated Chhota Rajan, into ordering the killing of senior crime journalist Dey, following some professional rivalry between two media persons.
The investigations revealed that it was incarcerated co-accused Paulson Joseph, who had provided international SIM cards to Vora to make calls to Rajan, who was then holed up somewhere in south-east Asia.
Rajan had not only warned Dey against filing negative stories or writing a book against him, but had also invited the senior journalist to Malaysia for a meeting with him .Deyhowever, refused to meet Rajan,
The charge-sheet among other things quoted Rajan as having told one Manoj that Jigna Vora, a former journalist and co-accused in the case, that Dey was a “”traitor”, was writing “wrong things’” and was in touch with a rival gang headed by Dawood or ISI. The transcripts of the taped conversations between Dawood, Manoj and other are part of a charge-sheet filed against Rajan in a MCOCA court early this month.
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 2015, was booked by the CBI in the J Dey murder within days after registered a case on January 5, 2016.