On Wednesday, the Bombay High Court granted mafia don Rajendra S Nikalje alias Chhota Rajan bail and suspended his life sentence in the sensational 2001 murder of hotelier Jaya Shetty in Mumbai.
On May 30 this year, the Special MCOCA Court found Rajan and others guilty of the sensational murder and sentenced him to his second life sentence in the last almost nine years.
He also moved an appeal against the life sentence, which at present is suspended by a division bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Justice Prithviraj K. Chavan, pending the outcome of his Supreme Court appeal, and also granted him bail.
Chances of his release are very slim since Rajan is already convicted and is undergoing life imprisonment in New Delhi's Tihar Central Jail for the broad daylight murder of crime journalist Jyotirmoy Dey of Powai in 2011.
He was an owner of south Mumbai's Golden Crown Hotel. Shetty was shot dead on 4 May 2001 by two armed men and the murder was ordered by Rajan, a bitter enemy of fugitive terrorist don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, causing a huge sensation in the public hospitality and political circles.
After long trial into the case, Special Judge AM Patil of MCOCA Special Court found Rajan guilty and sentenced him to life imprisonment along with other accused Rahul Pansare, Ajay Mohite and Pramod Dhonde.
Shetty was victim to extortion charges and was provided police protection, which was withdrawn months before he was targeted and killed. Interestingly, Shetty's murder case happened to be part of the dossier of 71 serious crimes handed over by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to the Indonesian government after Rajan was caught in the tourist haven of Bali and later deported to India in November 2015.
