In a development in senior journalist Jyotirmoy Dey alias J. Dey murder case, a special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act court situated inside high security Arthur Road jail on Tuesday issued a production warrant against Chhota Rajan seeking his presence before the court on January 7.
The special MCOCA judge A.L. Pansare on Tuesday issued production warrant against Rajan on an application made by special public prosecutor Dileep Shah. The judge issued the production warrant observing that the trial could not be deferred because the Bombay high court has issued direction to conduct this matter on day-to-day basis.
Advocate Shah told The Asian Age that the judge has made it clear that the material available against Rajan in the chargesheet is enough to start a trial. However, since prosecution would be required to obtain sanction to impose MCOCA on Rajan and hence the court would frame charges against him under relevant sections of IPC and start the trial the same day.
He also said that the judge noted that so far neither has the CBI taken Rajan’s custody in this matter nor has anybody from the CBI come before the court to provide updates on progress made in the investigation. Also, if Rajan’s trial is separated from others, it will cause huge trouble for witnesses, as they would have to come before the court twice to give evidence, said advocate Shah.
He had also contended before the court that a few witnesses have given their statement under Section 164 CrPC, which is admissible as evidence against the accused, and if Rajan’s trial is separated from current 10 accused, it would benefit Rajan because then the prosecution would not be able to use these statements against him. Considering all these things, the judge agreed to conduct a joint trial (to try all accused together) and issued warrant against Rajan. The court directed the Tihar jail officials (in Delhi) to ensure that Rajan is present in the court on January 7.
Though the trial can be conducted via video conferencing but for framing of charges an accused is required to be personally present before the court and hence the warrant has been issued against Rajan. “As per my knowledge there is no such connectivity (video conferencing facility) between Delhi and Mumbai as of now,” said advocate Shah.
According to one of the defence lawyers Santosh Deshpande, already a few of the accused are behind bars since last more than four years and now the question arises for how long the accused will remain behind bars without trial.
Rajan was arrested at Bali airport in Indonesia on October 25 after he arrived from Australia, and was later deported to India. After his arrival in India, the Maharashtra government handed over all the cases against him to the CBI.
The prosecution’s case is that Dey was shot dead in suburban Powai on June 11, 2011 on Rajan’s orders, as he was allegedly upset with two articles written by Dey against him.
