New Delhi: A CBI court here today sentenced underworld don Rajendra Sadashiv Nikhalje alias Chhota Rajan to seven years in jail for holding a fake passport.
It is the first case in which Rajan, who is facing nearly 85 cases, was found guilty.
Besides Chhota Rajan, others convicted by Central Bureau of Investigation Special Judge Virender Kumar Goyal are former passport officials Jayashree Dattatray Rahate, Deepak Natvarlal Shah and Lalitha Lakshmanan.
Special Judge Virender Kumar Goyal awarded the sentence to Rajan and others for offences including forgery of valuable security under the IPC which entails a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.
Rajan is lodged in Tihar Jail here. The other three persons, who were out on bail, were taken into custody yesterday after the verdict was announced.
The court had on March 28 reserved its judgement in the case in which Rajan allegedly procured a fake passport in the name of Mohan Kumar with the help of the three government officials.
Lakshmanan had approached the high court to transfer to Bengaluru her trial in the case but the petition was rejected on January 9 on the ground that a district court here could also hear the matter.
During pendency of the plea, the high court had ordered a stay on pronouncement of verdict in the case by trial court.
All the four persons have been convicted of offences under sections 420 (cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 467(forgery of valuable security or will), 419(cheating by impersonation) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC and section 12 (offences and penalties) of the Passport Act.
Deported after being on the run for 27 years, the 55-year old gangster, once a close aide of fugitive terrorist Dawood Ibrahim, was brought to India to face trial in over 70 cases of murder, extortion and drug smuggling in Delhi and Mumbai.
Rajan was deported to India after his arrest in Bali in October 2015.
