On Wednesday, the Bombay High Court awarded criminal Chhota Rajan bail in the case and postponed his life sentence in connection with the 2001 murder of hotelier Jaya Shetty in Mumbai.
A division bench consisting of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Prithviraj Chavan ordered Chhota Rajan to provide a₹1 lakh bond as payment for bail. However, Chhota Rajan will remain incarcerated in other criminal cases.
A special court found Chhota Rajan guilty of the hotelier’s murder in May and gave him a life sentence.
Rajan had challenged the conviction in an appeal to the Bombay High Court. The gangster requested bail in the interim and a suspension of the sentence.
Who was Jaya Shetty?
On May 4, 2001, two suspected members of Chhota Rajan’s gang shot and killed Jaya Shetty, the owner of the Golden Crown Hotel in Gamdevi, central Mumbai, on the first floor of the establishment.
According to an inquiry, Jaya Shetty was slain because he refused to pay the extortion money that Hemant Pujari, a member of the Chhota Rajan gang, had sent him.
Rajan is incarcerated at Delhi’s Tihar jail, where he is already serving a life sentence for the murder of legendary crime reporter J. Dey.
