Gangster Chhota Rajan, 5 others get 8-yr RI in 2012 case

A Mumbai court on Tuesday awarded eight years' rigorous imprisonment to gangster Chhota Rajan and five others for attempting to kill a city-based hotelier in 2012.

Special court judge A T Wankhede convicted the six under various sections of the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) and the Indian Penal Code Sections 307 (attempt to murder) and 120(b) (criminal conspiracy).

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on each of them.

In May last year, the same court awarded life imprisonment to Rajan for the murder of Mumbai-based journalist J Dey.

Rajan is lodged in Tihar jail in Delhi after his deportation to India from Indonesia in October 2015.

Besides Rajan, the five others awarded the punishment are Nityanand Nayak, Selvin Daniel, Rohit Thangappan Joseph alias Satish Kalia, Dilip Upadhyay and Talvinder Singh.

Hotelier B R Shetty was shot at in suburban Andheri by two motorcycle-borne shooters linked to Rajan in October 2012, when he was going to meet a friend.

Mumbai Police's anti-extortion cell, which probed the case, alleged that Rajan ordered his sharp-shooter Kalia to eliminate Shetty.

Kalia, who was in judicial custody for his involvement in J Dey's killing, asked his aide Gurudeep Singh, who is wanted in the case, to approach Upadhyay and Talvinder Singh to carry out the killing.

Nayak and Daniel then conducted a recce and helped the shooters identify Shetty, according to police.

On October 3, 2012, Upadhyay and Talvinder Singh followed Shetty on a motorcycle from the time he left his office. When the businessman reached near a jewellery showroom in Andheri, Upadhyay shot him.

Shetty received injury in his right arm, but survived.

During the trial, the prosecution examined 49 witnesses.

While convicting the six men, the court relied on the confessional statements of four of the accused as well as the deposition of Shetty.