Underworld don Chhota Rajan alias Rajendra Sadashiv Nikalje has been convicted by a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Tamil Nadu's Chennai in a fake passport case and sentenced to seven years of imprisonment, an official said on Thursday.
Rajan, a close aide of Dawood Ibrahim who is currently lodged in Delhi's Tihar Jail, has also been imposed a Rs 55,000 votes. The court convicted Rajan of cheating, forgery, cheating by personation and obtaining a passport by submitting false documents.
What this case is all about?
A first information report (FIR) was registered by the central agency against Rajan, who is facing a life imprisonment in another case, on March 19, 2002. According to the CBI, Rajan had applied for and obtained a passport by submitting forged documents, thereby cheating the Regional Passport Office in Chennai.
"The investigation revealed that the accused, Chota Rajan, applied for an Indian passport in the name of Vijaya Kadam by submitting false documents... It was also found that the real name of Vijaya Kadam was Rajendra alias Nana alias Chota Rajan, s/o Sadashiv, a resident of Mumbai," the CBI said in a statement.
The CBI had filed its chargesheet against Rajan within two years on January 22, 2004.
Rajan lodged in Tihar Jail
Rajan remains at Tihar Jail, where he is serving life imprisonment in another case. Last year, the bail granted to him was cancelled by the Supreme Court in the 2001 murder case of hotelier Jaya Shetty in Mumbai.
The court had observed that Rajan remained absconding for 27 years and was convicted in four cases. "Why suspension of sentence to such a man," the bench had said.
In May 2024, a special court convicted Rajan in the hotelier's murder case and sentenced him to life imprisonment. Rajan filed an appeal in the high court against the conviction. He also sought that the sentence be suspended and he be granted bail in the interim.
Shetty, who owned the Golden Crown hotel at Gamdevi in central Mumbai, was shot dead by two alleged members of Rajan's gang on the hotel's first floor on May 4, 2001. A probe suggested that Shetty had received extortion calls from Hemant Pujari, a member of the Chhota Rajan gang, and was killed because of his failure to pay the money.
(With inputs from PTI)
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