Jailed gangster Chhota Rajan's close aide Santosh Mahadeo Sawant was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation as he landed at Mumbai airport from Singapore, after being on the run for 18 years, officials said on Wednesday.
The Supreme Court has cancelled the bail granted to gangster Chhota Rajan in the 2001 murder case of hotelier Jaya Shetty in Mumbai, citing his history of absconding and convictions.
In a setback for Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), gangster Chhota Rajan was acquitted by a special court two decades after he was booked for threatening a builder, with the judge noting the prosecution has failed to prove the charge as nothing incriminatory was found during witnesses' testimonies.
Rajan will, however, continue to remain in jail in connection with other criminal cases.
The remarks come amid speculation that Rajan had feared elimination at the hands of Chhota Shakeel, the closest aide of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.
Underworld don Chhota Rajan, who was arrested on arrival from Australia, on Sunday received consular access with an Indian diplomat.
Shetty was shot dead by two alleged members of Rajan's gang on the hotel's first floor on May 4, 2001.
The underworld don has written a letter to the Indian consulate speaking of a threat to his life in the Bali prison.
In a relief to former Mumbai police officer Pradeep Sharma, the Supreme Court on Monday said he need not surrender till further orders to undergo the life term awarded to him in a 2006 fake encounter case.
Former Mumbai police officer Pradeep Sharma has moved the Supreme Court challenging the Bombay high court verdict convicting and sentencing him to life imprisonment in a 2006 fake encounter case.
A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Gauri Godse quashed the sessions court's 2013 judgment acquitting Sharma, terming it as "perverse" and "unsustainable".
The Maharashtra government has appointed a special public prosecutor to fight its case against the eleven accused in the murder of senior journalist Jyotirmoy Dey.
Six months after the murder of senior crime journalist J Dey, the Mumbai police on Saturday filed a chargesheet against 12 accused, including fugitive gangster Chhota Rajan, in the special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act court in Mumbai.
A sessions court on Wednesday granted bail to a close aide of fugitive gangster Chhota Rajan, in connection with the firing outside the residence of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's brother Iqbal Kaskar, in which, the latter's bodyguard-cum-driver was killed.
Mumbai police's controversial encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma was remanded on Thursday, to judicial custody till January 27 along with five others including two constables in an alleged fake encounter case involving an aide of gangster Chhota Rajan.
Journalist Jigna Vora, arrested in the murder of senior crime reporter J Dey, invited the suspicion of investigators when she claimed she never spoke to gangster Chhota Rajan on phone, an assertion not backed by facts, police said on Monday.
The Mumbai police filed a chargesheet against encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma and 20 others in an alleged fake encounter of Ramnarayan Gupta, a suspected aide of gangster Chhota Rajan, on Saturday.
The sessions court in Mumbai on Thursday acquitted D K Rao, alleged trusted lieutenant of fugitive gangster Chhota Rajan, in an attempt-to-murder case.
A special Central Bureau of Investigation court in Mumbai has accepted the closure report filed by the probe agency against jailed gangster Chhota Rajan in a case of attempt to murder of a noted journalist in 1997.
Nikalje in his application stated that he had gone to Chembur on November 30 to help pacify the mob and not to incite them as claimed by the police in the FIR against him.
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The four alleged contract killers, identified as Robinson, Junaid, Yunus and Manish, were arrested on June 3 following which they were sent to police remand and interrogated for five days.
The CBI sources said the agency has charged them with criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and under Provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act in the chargesheet.
The court took note of Michel's submission alleging mental torture inside the jail and directed Tihar jail authorities to produce the CCTV footage and reports by Thursday based on which he was shifted to a high-security ward.
He was medically examined then shifted him to jail number 2, whose other notable inmates include gangster Chhota Rajan.
The framing of charges against Rajan paves the way for the trial, five years after the veteran investigative journalist was shot dead in suburban Powai in 2011.
The Bombay high court on Tuesday dismissed a discharge plea made by real estate developer Vinod Asrani alias Vinod Chembur, an accused in the murder of journalist Jyotirmoy Dey, after observing that there was prima facie evidence against him.
Security of underworld don and India's most wanted terrorist Dawood Ibrahim has been enhanced in Pakistan after the arrest of his bete noire Chhota Rajan in Indonesia.
A special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act court in Mumbai on Monday framed charges against 10 accused, including arrested scribe Jigna Vora, in the journalist J Dey murder case of 2011.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has started questioning gangster Chhota Rajan in Tihar prison in connection with journalist Jyotirmoy Dey murder case.
Deported gangster Chhota Rajan was on Thursday produced before a special MCOCA court in Mumbai via video conference from Tihar Jail in connection with journalist J Dey's murder of 2011.
Security agencies have decided to bring arrested gangster Chhota Rajan to New Delhi with the Central Bureau of Investigation keeping him in custody for initial period before any other police force is allowed to take him for their respective investigations.
The state police has also requested the government to deploy paramilitary forces around the jail premises for the underworld don's security.
The Bombay high court on Wednesday granted bail to Paulson Joseph, an alleged member of the Chhota Rajan gang and accused in the murder of journalist Jyotirmoy Dey.
All 21 convicts, including 13 policemen were on Thursday awarded life imprisonment by a court in Mumbai in the 2006 fake encounter killing of Ram Narayan Gupta alias Lakkhan Bhaiya, an alleged aide of fugitive gangster Chhota Rajan.
The court took note of Michel's submission alleging mental torture inside the jail and directed Tihar jail authorities to produce the CCTV footage and reports by Thursday based on which he was shifted to a high-security ward.
"The court has framed charges under MCOCA against Rajan and he has pleaded innocence," said a Central Bureau of Investigation official.
However, another senior cop and accused Pradeep Suryawanshi who was leading the encounter team was convicted for murder of Ram Narayan Gupta, a suspected aide of gangster Chhota Rajan. Twenty others, including 13 policemen, were also convicted for various charges
When the team later reached the flat where they were staying, Chhota Rajan asked them to leave immediately, saying the operation was leaked to Dawood Ibrahim.
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