Mumbai: A special court on Wednesday framed charges against gangster Chhota Rajan in the 2011 murder of journalist J Dey, paving the way for the trial to commence.
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The trial will start on September 7.
A supplementary chargesheet was framed against Rajan in the MCOCA court last week.
Jyotirmoy Dey, a veteran investigative journalist, in one of the books, is said to have projected Rajan as ‘chindi’ or inconsequential and Dawood as the “don of Mumbai”.
The 59-year-old gangster is facing around 71 cases in Maharashtra, which includes the J. Dey murder.
According to the agency’s chargesheet, Dey was going to expose the fake patriotic mask used by Rajan to secure himself and to gather wealth for his family. Rajan has been charged under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code for murder and conspiracy, under relevant sections of Arms Act, Bombay Police Act and under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act – MCOCA for running an organised crime syndicate. Rajan, however pleaded not guilty to all the charges. In February this year, a sample of a conversation between Rajan, now lodged in a high-security cell in Tihar jail and another man wherein they discuss the plan to kill Dey was submitted in the court.
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J Dey was murdered on June 11, 2011 near Powai garden while he was on his way home. He also told an aide that journalist Jigna Vora had told him several times that Dey “is writing wrong things and is in touch with the other gang and was a traitor”. He was arrested at Bali airport in Indonesia on October 25 after he arrived from Australia, and was later deported to India. The first charge sheet filed in the case in 2011 names Satiah Kaliya, Abhijeet Shinde, Arun Dake, Sachin Gaikwad, Anil Waghmode, Nilesh Shendge, Mangesh Agawane, Vinod Asrani, Paulson Joseph and Deepak Sisodia (all arrested).
