Gosalia firing: Chhota Rajan, six others convicted

The special MCOCA court on Tuesday convicted extradited gangster Rajendra Nikalje alias Chhota Rajan and six other members of his gang in connection with firing at Ajay Gosalia, a bookie-turned-builder in 2013

The special MCOCA court on Tuesday convicted extradited gangster Rajendra Nikalje alias Chhota Rajan and six other members of his gang in connection with firing at Ajay Gosalia, a bookie-turned-builder in 2013.

Chhota Rajan. (AFP)

The special judge AT Wankhede sentenced Rajan, his financer Kaushik Rajgaur, sharpshooter Satish Kalia and others who executed the plan – Sunilkumar alias Piyush Tiwari, Vilas Singh, Arvind Shinde, Prakash Nikam – to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment with ₹5 lakh fine each.

This is the fourth of the 71 cases where Rajan has been found guilty. Rajan is presently lodged in Tihar jail and is sentenced to life imprisonment in connection with journalist J Dey murder case.

As per the prosecution, Gosalia was attacked on August 28, 2013, when he was coming out of Infiniti Mall in Malad (West). Gosalia suffered four bullet injuries – one near neck, two on chest and one on his palm. Gosalia had seen his assailants and identified them in the court.

The agency alleged the firing was ordered by Rajan over old rivalry. It was alleged that the orders of execution were given to Kalia.

Special public prosecutor Pradeep Gharat examined a total of 56 witnesses, which included Rajan’s close aide DK Rao and Amit Sinha – an approver who also was part of the group which executed the conspiracy. The prosecution also relied on the CCTV footage collected from the camera at the mall.

Sinha had said that he was in urgent need of money due to which he got involved in the conspiracy to kill Gosalia with Kalia. He claimed that Kalia had promised to help him if he followed his instructions. He claimed that he arranged for bullets and weapons while Rajgaur arranged for finance.

While Nikam arranged for the assailants for the job, on Kalia’s instructions, Sinha supplied weapons to them.

Meanwhile, Rao, in his statement recorded by CBI on October 28, 2016, claimed he knew Gosalia as he was affiliated to Dawood gang. “After serial bomb blast in Mumbai in 1993, Chhota Rajan group had separated from Dawood gang. Gosalia was one of the informers of the gang. After the separation of the gang, he used to provide information to Mumbai police and Chhota Shakeel about Rajan and his gang members,” Rao has claimed in his statement to CBI.

However, Rao refused to identify any of the accused before the court and claimed that he was never a part of Rajan gang.

The special court, while convicting Rajan and others, asked Madhya Pradesh Police to conduct an inquiry into the lapses that led to the escape of one of the accused Rajendra Singh. One of the key accused who was part of the group which opened fired at Gosalia, Singh, has been declared as absconder since September 2016.