Paving the way for the commencement of trial again in the June 2011 case involving the murder of senior city journalist J.
Paving the way for the commencement of trial again in the June 2011 case involving the murder of senior city journalist J. Dey, a special court located inside the Arthur Road jail on Wednesday framed charges against the key accused, deported gangster Rajendra Nikalje alias Chhota Rajan.
The trial had earlier come to a halt when Indonesian authorities had deported Rajan after arresting him at Bali airport on October 25, 2015 on his arrival from Australia.
Rajan is facing around 70 cases in Maharashtra, which includes the J. Dey murder case. The Maharashtra government had subsequently handed over all the cases against Rajan to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The central agency conducted a fresh probe into the J. Dey case. It then registered a fresh case and filed a supplementary chargesheet recently against Rajan and an alleged associate of his. Before the CBI took over the case, the trial was being conducted on the basis of a chargesheet against 11 accused submitted by the Mumbai crime branch.
Rajan participated in the court proceedings through video-conferencing. When special judge Sameer Adkar, after reading out draft charges, had asked Rajan if he accepts his involvement in J. Dey’s murder, Rajan had replied that he does not plead guilty and is ready to face the trial.
The judge then framed charges for criminal conspiracy, murder and abetment to murder, and under relevant sections of MCOCA.
Following this, the court had deferred hearing on the matter till September 7, which is when the CBI would inform the court about its future course of action in conducting the trial, and the defence would inform the court if it wants to recall any witnesses who have already deposed before the court prior to Rajan being brought to India.
