india

Updated: Aug 21, 2019 00:09 IST

Mumbai: A special court on Tuesday sentenced six men including underworld don Rajendra Sadashiv Nikalje, alias Chhota Rajan, to eight years’ imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5 lakh for shooting and injuring city-based hotelier BR Shetty in October 2012.

The court, which tries cases under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), convicted, besides Rajan, Nityanand Nayak, Selvin Daniel, Rohit Thangappan Joseph alias Satish Kalia, Dilip Upadhyay and Talvinder Singh.

The six were held guilty of attempt to murder, hatching a criminal conspiracy and working for an organised crime syndicate under the Indian Penal Code and MCOCA.

The accused, after they were found guilty, pleaded for leniency as they have been in jail since their arrest in 2012. Rajan, when the court was about to pronounce the sentence, said he had nothing to do with all these cases. Rajan too pleaded for minimum punishment.

Special public prosecutor Pradeep Gharat called for the maximum punishment to be handed down to the accused. “Under the provision the minimum sentence is five years with fine up to Rs. 5 lakh and maximum sentence is imprisonment for life. Here we plead that the accused be awarded maximum punishment in the case,” Gharat submitted.

The Anti Extortion Cell (AEC), which probed the case, claimed that Rajan ordered his sharpshooter Kalia to eliminate Shetty. Kalia, who was in judicial custody for his involvement in journalist Jyotirmoy Dey’s 2011 murder, asked his aide GurdeepSingh to approach Upadhyay and Talvinder Singh to carry out the killing. Nayak and Daniel then conducted a recce and helped identify Shetty.

On October 3, 2012, Upadhyay and Singh followed Shetty on a bike from the time he left his office in Andheri in his Skoda car on his way home.

At around 9:40 pm, when he reached a famous jewellery showroom in Andheri, Upadhyay opened fire at Shetty, who sustained an injury to his right arm and survived. The shooters escaped from the place while the hotelier rushed to the nearby Oshiwara police station from where he was taken to a hospital

During the investigation, the two shooters, along with Daniel and Nayak, confessed and revealed details of the conspiracy.

The prosecution examined a total of 49 witnesses including Shetty. The prosecution primarily relied on the confessional statements given by four of the accused and call data records, along with other corroborative evidence.