In May 2011, journalist J Dey wrote an article titled: ‘Did Rajan plan hit on Kaskar?’ A second article appeared that June, titled: ‘Rajan gangsters off to ‘pilgrimages’ – Cops say many Rajan gang members are missing from their hideouts in the city.’
Days later, Dey was shot dead allegedly by goons of the gangster.
Rajendra Sadashiv Nikhalje alias Chhota Rajan, accused of being the mastermind behind the killing, and his aides have been named in the charge sheet of the J Dey murder case. He was allegedly upset that Dey had portrayed him as an “ageing” gangster with a weakening clout.
“When he is brought to India, he will have to be produced before the court in this case,” special public prosecutor Raja Thakare told The Hindu . Trial in the J Dey case is currently under way at the special MCOCA court of the high-security Arthur Road jail here. Having risen from being a cinema ticket tout in suburban Chembur to running a thriving underworld operation, Rajan faces a series of cases of murder, extortion, smuggling and drug trafficking.
“There are about 25 cases against him at the Crime Branch alone. His extortion business spanned the whole of Mumbai. Wherever there was construction business, he used to issue extortion threats,” a former Crime Branch officer who handled a few of them, told The Hindu .
His alleged phone call to a television channel claiming responsibility for the J Dey murder is likely to be treated as an “extra judicial confession.” “We have very good evidence against him. The interview he gave to the media can be treated as admissible evidence,” the former officer said.
Parting ways with don Dawood Ibrahim after the 1993 serial blasts, Rajan unleashed a bitter gang war in Mumbai. Perceiving threat to his life in Dubai, he set up bases in Bangkok and Malaysia, shifting between the two.
