Supreme Court Cancels Bail for Chhota Rajan in Jaya Shetty Murder Case
In a major twist, the Supreme Court on Wednesday pulled the plug on bail for notorious mafia don Rajendra S. Nikalje, better known as Chhota Rajan. This comes in connection with the shocking 2001 murder of Mumbai hotelier Jaya Shetty, a case that rocked the city.
A bench led by Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta stepped in after the CBI filed a special leave petition. They overturned a Bombay High Court order that had granted Rajan bail and paused his life sentence. The court highlighted how Rajan has convictions in four other serious cases and stayed on the run for nearly 27 years.
CBI’s Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju argued the point strongly, pointing out Rajan’s long history of crime. Back in 2017, a Special MCOCA Court had convicted him for Shetty’s murder and slapped him with a life term—his second one in almost a decade. Rajan appealed to the Bombay High Court, where Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Prithviraj K. Chavan put the sentence on hold last October and set him free on bail. But he couldn’t walk out anyway, as he’s already locked up in Delhi’s Tihar Jail, serving life for the 2011 broad-daylight killing of journalist Jyotirmoy Dey in Powai.
This Shetty case was one of 71 big crimes the CBI handed over to Indonesia after nabbing Rajan in Bali in 2015. They deported him back to India soon after. Jaya Shetty, who ran the Golden Crown Hotel in south Mumbai, got gunned down by two shooters on May 4, 2001. Rajan, a fierce rival of fugitive underworld boss Dawood Ibrahim, allegedly ordered the hit over an extortion row. It sent shockwaves through Mumbai’s hotel industry and politics.
Shetty had police protection at first because of threats, but authorities pulled it back just months before the attack. After a lengthy trial, Special MCOCA Judge A.M. Patil found Rajan guilty and sentenced him to life, along with co-accused Rahul Pansare, Ajay Mohite, and Pramod Dhonde.
With this ruling, Chhota Rajan’s legal battles in high-profile murder cases like the Jaya Shetty killing continue to keep him behind bars. The decision underscores the CBI’s push to hold gangsters accountable for their role in Mumbai’s underworld turf wars.
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