Datta Samant murder: Rajan acquitted for lack of evidence

Underworld leader Rajendra Sadashiv Nikalje alias Chota Rajan was put on trial for masterminding the sensational assassination of one the country’s most charismatic union leaders. On Thursday, a special CBI court in Mumbai exonerated him of all charges for want of cogent and conclusive evidence

MUMBAI: 26 years ago, trade union leader Datta Samant, whose call for a strike of Bombay’s 2,50,000 mill workers broke the back of the city’s textile industry, was shot dead by motorcycle-borne assailants. They intercepted his jeep as he was on his way to his office at Ghatkopar, and pumped 17 bullets into him, killing him instantly.

In the first set of trial in July 2000, the sessions court convicted the three actual assailants -- Arun Ananda Londhe, Vijay Ramchandra Thopate, and Ganpat Bhikaji Bamane as they had been identified by eye witnesses to the murder. (ANI)

Underworld leader Rajendra Sadashiv Nikalje alias Chota Rajan was put on trial for masterminding the sensational assassination of one the country’s most charismatic union leaders. On Thursday, a special CBI court in Mumbai exonerated him of all charges for want of cogent and conclusive evidence.

“The story of the prosecution is that the murder of Dr Datta Samant was committed pursuant to the conspiracy hatched by Chhota Rajan. Upon scrutinising testimony of the witnesses, it is seen that nothing has come on record to prove that Chhota Rajan had hatched the conspiracy and prepared a plan for the murder of Dr Datta Samant,” said special CBI judge AM Patil while acquitting the gangster who is now in jail in Delhi. 8 of the 22 witnesses in the case had turned hostile over the years.

Datta Samant was killed on the morning of January 16,1997 as he left his home in Powai to go to his office at Ghatkopar. At that time Dr Samant was leading the union at the Premier Padmini Automobile Limited and had called for a total lockdown which was being contested by a section of the workers. A certain Ratan Patil set up parallel union and resumed work at the factory which led to tension among the workers. It was the police’s contention that Patil’s son Ramesh had given a contract to the Chhota Rajan gang, through the gangster’s close aide Vijay Nepali, to kill Datta Samant. Nine persons, including three of the actual assailants--the fourth man was later killed in an encounter-- were arrested and prosecuted in the first set of trial. The police had initially also named two other gangsters of the Rajan gang, Guru Satam and Rohit Verma for conspiracy but eventually they were declared absconders and their trial was separated.

In the first set of trial in July 2000, the sessions court convicted the three actual assailants -- Arun Ananda Londhe, Vijay Ramchandra Thopate, and Ganpat Bhikaji Bamane as they had been identified by eye witnesses to the murder.

As the trial against Rajan proceeded at its own pace, the gangster was arrested by Indian authorities in Bali, Indonesia, in October 2015. The CBI subsequently took over all the cases registered against him across India. The central agency investigated his role in the conspiracy to kill Dr Samant’s-- one of the biggest pending cases against the gangsters-- but failed to prove the same in court.

The special CBI court also rejected the plea of special prosecutor Pradeep Gharat seeking action for perjury against one of the witnesses, Bhagwati Reddy, who had turned hostile in the course of the trial. Bhagwati Reddy was a school teacher who allegedly taught the children of one of the union leaders Ashok Satardekar who was Samant’s rival and she also taught some of the children of the Rajan’s gang members. It was the prosecution’s case that Bhagwati Reddy along with Satardekar’s wife had had made the first contact with the Rajan gang to eliminate Datta Samant. During the trial, Bhagwati Reddy denied having done so and in fact she even denied having deposed previously in the trial which led to the prosecutor seeking perjury charges against her. The court rejected his appeal. “Upon perusal of her testimony, it is seen that police had not recorded her statement under section 161 of CrPC. So far as her earlier testimony before this court is concerned, it is alleged that she had turned hostile at that time. It means that there is no statement under section 161 as well as no statement before the court.”

Samant’s rival union leader Ratan Patil is dead, his son Ramesh was acquitted in 2000 and the three actual assailants whose convictions were upheld by the Supreme Court, are out having completed their sentence.