Mumbai: The Bombay High Court's single judge bench on Friday suspended the eight-year sentence imposed on five men of the Chhota Rajan gang involved in a 2012 shootout case on hotelier BR Shetty, till their appeals are decided.
Justice Prithviraj K Chavan noted in his order that the maximum sentence awarded by the trial court is eight years and that the applicants had already undergone a substantial part of the substantive sentence. Some of them have been in custody since 2012, it noted.
The court relied on an apex court judgment, which made it clear that the normal rule when the appeal of a person convicted and sentenced is pending, the sentence should be suspended unless any exceptional reason is recorded in the order. Justice Chavan also relied on another apex court judgment, which observed that when a person is convicted and sentenced to a short-term imprisonment, the person can be released on bail as a normal rule when the appeal is pending. That, its rejection should only be by way of exception and if the short-term sentence is allowed to run-out during pendency of the appeal, the appeal itself would become infructuous.
The five convicts – Nityanand Nayak, Selvin Daniel, Talvinder Singh Bakshi, Dilip Upadhyay and Sathish Kalya were directed by the court to furnish bonds of Rs 30,000 each and report to the special judge on the first Monday of each month till their appeals are decided by the HC. The bench also directed them to deposit 50 per cent of the fine amount (the special court had fined them Rs 5 lakh each), said advocate Sathosh Deshpande, who appeared for Sathish Kalya.
A special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court had in August last year sentenced Chhota Rajan and five of these men to eight years in jail and imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh each on them. Special Judge under the Act AT Wankhede had found the men guilty of sections of MCOCA, Arms Act, attempt to murder and criminal conspiracy.
The crime had taken place on Oct 3, 2012 when around 9.30 pm Dilip Upadhyay had fired four rounds at BR Shetty. Dilip was riding pillion with Talvinder Singh. Shetty was driving his car near New link Road in Andheri and was on his way to a friend’s place for dinner. Shetty had sustained injury to his shoulder in the attack and when he deposed in court, the bullet was still in his body. The crime, the court said, was committed at the behest of Rajan.
