A special court in Delhi on Monday convicted underworld don Rajendra Sadashiv Nikhalje alias Chhota Rajan and three government officials in a fake passport case.
Besides Chhota Rajan, four other accused convicted in the case are -- then passport officers Jayashree Dattatray Rahate, Deepak Natvarlal Shah and Lalitha Lakshmanan.
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Special Judge Virender Kumar Goyal convicted Rajan 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 after the verdict was announced.
This is the first case in which Chhota Rajan has been held guilty.
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.
The court on June 8, 2016, framed charges against Chhota Rajan and Jayashree Dattatray Rahate, Deepak Natvarlal Shah and Lalitha Lakshmanan under sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) dealing with criminal conspiracy, cheating, cheating by impersonation and forgery of documents.
The CBI had alleged in its chargesheet that Chhota Rajan got issued a fake passport from Bengaluru in 1998-99 in connivance with Rahate, Shah and Lakshmanan in the name of Mohan Kumar.
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.
The argument on quantum of sentence will be heard by the court on Tuesday.
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.
However, the high court later rejected the plea.
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.
The don, held by the Indonesian police on October 25, 2015, was deported to India on November 6, 2015.
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