Mumbai: Clean chit for Chhota Rajan in 1999 murder of Dawood gang member

Mumbai: Gangster Chhota Rajan has got a clean chit in a 1999 case where his men allegedly fired at and killed an alleged associate of Dawood Ibrahim. Special court Judge AM Patil observed that while the men are said to have referred to Chhota Rajan as ‘Nana’ during the firing, there is nothing to show he in fact is ‘Nana’. 

Interestingly, in the present case and as well as other cases of the gangster before the special court designated to deal with the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) 71 cases against him, his alias of ‘Nana’ is recorded. Many of these cases have now been closed due to lack of sufficient evidence. In some other cases he has secured an acquittal or discharge. 

The incident dates back to Sep 2, 1999, when four of Chhota Rajan’s men arrived in a Maruti car at 10.15am, overtook and blocked a Mahindra jeep in which the victim Anilkumar Sharma was travelling with his driver. The men fired at Mr Sharma’s neck. His driver, who later filed a complaint at the Andheri police station, had been hit with a hard object on his head during the incident and had lost consciousness. He had told the police that the men had told Mr Sharma, “Nana se dushmani rakhne ka nateeja dekh” (see the result of keeping enmity with Nana) before shooting him.

Besides the observation about the ‘Nana’ reference, the court said that upon perusal of the charge sheet, there is no prima facie evidence to prove the conspiracy of the gangster with other accused to commit murder.

The court also noted that the driver, who was a key witness in the case, had turned hostile during the trial against eight men who were earlier tried for the murder. During the trial, he had denied that the men had uttered the words. The men were acquitted by another court in 2002.

Chhota Rajan had sought discharge from the case on the grounds that the eight men had got an acquittal in the case and had also pointed out that the complainant had not stated anything in his testimony regarding him. He said the CBI’s case was based on conjectures and contended that he had not given any instructions to anyone for the murder.