08 February,2025 04:02 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Chhota Rajan. File Pic
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a plea filed by the CBI challenging a Bombay High Court order that suspended the life sentence of gangster Chhota Rajan in the 2021 murder case, reported the PTI.
Underworld don Chhota Rajan was convicted in the murder case of hotelier Jaya Shetty.
The Bombay High Court had suspended the life sentence of Rajan and granted him bail, according to the PTI.
In May last year, a special court had convicted Rajan in the Mumbai hotelier's murder case and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
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Chhota Rajan filed an appeal in the Bombay High Court against the conviction. He sought that the sentence be suspended and he be granted bail in the interim.
Jaya Shetty, who owned the Golden Crown hotel at Gamdevi in central Mumbai, was shot dead by two alleged members of Rajan's gang on the hotel's first floor on May 4, 2001.
A probe suggested that Shetty had received extortion calls from Hemant Pujari, a member of the Chhota Rajan gang, and was killed because of his failure to pay the money.
Meanwhile, A three-judge bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sanjay Karol and Sandeep Mehta of Supreme Court has issued notice to Chhota Rajan and sought his response within four weeks.
"Issue notice, returnable within four weeks. In the meantime, counsel for the petitioner shall also clear the defects as pointed out by the Registry," the bench said.
In May last year, a special court convicted Rajan for murdering Shetty and sentenced him to life imprisonment, as per the PTI.
Chhota Rajan filed an appeal in the Bombay High Court against the conviction. In its order passed on October 23, 2024, the HC suspended his sentence and granted bail.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has challenged the HC order.
Shetty, who owned the Golden Crown hotel at Gamdevi in central Mumbai, was shot dead by two members of Rajan's gang on the hotel's first floor on May 4, 2001.
A probe suggested that Shetty had received extortion calls from Hemant Pujari, a member of the Chhota Rajan gang, and was killed after he failed to pay the money.
Rajan, already serving a life term for the murder of veteran crime reporter J Dey, is currently lodged in Delhi's Tihar jail.
(with PTI inputs)
