Mumbai: A special CBI court in Mumbai has acquitted gangster Chhota Rajan and four other accused in connection with the 2009 firing incident targeting Shiv Sena functionary Ajay Bhosale in Pune, with the verdict delivered on Friday, PTI reported.
The case pertains to an assault carried out on October 11, 2009, when two men riding a motorcycle shot at Bhosale in the Koregaon locality as he was campaigning during elections.
Special judge Narendranath Pradhan exonerated Rajendra Sadashiv Nikalje, better known as Chhota Rajan, along with Surendra Agarwal, Shakib Aalam Khan, Rajesh Yadav and Vijay Purshottam Salvi.
Investigators had alleged that the shooting was linked to an ongoing dispute over family property involving Surendra Agarwal and his siblings, R K Agrawal and V K Agrawal.
According to the prosecution, Surendra sought assistance from a purported associate of Rajan to press R K Agrawal to transfer a portion of the family assets. Bhosale was said to be a close acquaintance of R K Agrawal.
The matter was first handled by the Bund Garden police station in Pune. Following Rajan’s deportation to India in 2015, the Maharashtra government directed that the case be transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation as part of a batch of 71 cases registered against him.
Rajan is currently incarcerated at Tihar Jail, where he is serving a life term for the killing of journalist J Dey. He has also been found guilty in multiple other criminal matters.