Bombay HC grants bail to Chhota Rajan in hotelier murder case and suspends life sentence

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday granted mafia don Rajendra S. Nikalje alias Chhota Rajan bail and suspended his life sentence in the sensational 2001 murder of hotelier Jaya Shetty in Mumbai.

On May 30 this year, the Special MCOCA Court found Rajan and others guilty of the sensational murder and sentenced him to his second life sentence in the last almost nine years.

He has filed an appeal against the life sentence, which is currently suspended by a division bench comprising Justice Revati Mohite-Dere and Justice Prithviraj K. Chavan, pending the outcome of the Supreme Court appeal, and has also granted him bail.

However, it is unlikely that Rajan will be released as he is already convicted and serving a life sentence for the 2011 broad daylight murder of crime journalist Jyotirmoy Dey in Powai, which he is serving in New Delhi’s Tihar Central Jail.

Shetty, owner of the Golden Crown Hotel in south Mumbai, was shot dead by two armed men on May 4, 2001, and the shooting was ordered by Rajan, a bitter rival of fugitive terrorist don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, causing a huge sensation in the public hospitality and political circles.

After a long trial, MCOCA Special Court Special Judge AM Patil found Rajan guilty and sentenced him to life imprisonment along with other accused Rahul Pansare, Ajay Mohite and Pramod Dhonde.

Shetty was the victim of alleged extortion and was given police protection, which was withdrawn months before he was targeted and killed. Incidentally, Shetty’s murder case was included in the dossier of 71 serious crimes handed over by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to the Indonesian government after Rajan was caught in the tourist haven of Bali and later deported to India in November 2015.

(With inputs from IANS)