Gangster Chhota Rajan Convicted for Involvement in Mumbai Hotelier’s Murder

Mumbai: Underworld don, Chhota Rajan, who is serving a life sentence, was convicted for his involvement in the 2001 murder of a Mumbai hotelier by a special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court on Thursday.

The court ascertained that Rajan, along with four others, had made the plan to kill Jaya Shetty, the owner of four restaurants in Mumbai. Three of Rajan’s co-accused in the case were convicted earlier by the special court.

On 4 May 2001, Shetty was shot dead at his hotel by two unidentified assailants. After the murder, Hemant Pujari, a close associate of Rajan allegedly called the hotel and threatened to “wash out” the family if extortion money was not paid.

Pujari is still the most wanted accused in this murder case.

Rajan, who is accused in at least 70 cases in Maharashtra, was arrested at Bali airport in Indonesia on 25 October 2015. He was deported to India and in May 2018, a special MCOCA court sentenced Rajan and eight others to life imprisonment for their roles in a journalist’s murder in June 2011.

Since his deportation, Rajan is in Delhi’s high-security Tihar jail.