MUMBAI: A special CBI court has acquitted incarcerated gangster Chhota Rajan and four others in a 17-year-old attempt-to-murder case, where former Shiv Sena leader Ajay Bhosale was targeted in a shooting in Pune during the 2009 Maharashtra assembly election campaign.
On Friday, Special Judge Narendranath Ravindranath Pradhan acquitted Rajendra Sadashiv Nikalje alias Chhota Rajan, Mohammad Shakib Shahnawaj Alam Khan, businessman Surendra Kumar Bhramadatt Agarwal, Rajesh Dodaram Yadav and Vijay Purshottam Salvi alias Vijay Tambat of charges of attempted murder, criminal conspiracy and offences under the Arms Act.
The prosecution alleged the attack was linked to a property dispute between Agarwal and his brothers, RK Agarwal and VK Agarwal. Bhosale, a friend of RK Agarwal, was allegedly targeted after he failed to intervene in the dispute. In 2013, the state CID named Rajan and other alleged associates as accused.
They said Agarwal had allegedly approached Rajan through his associate Tambat to exert pressure on his brother over the division of the family’s property.
The Bombay High Court had earlier directed the investigating officer to examine witness statements referring to Rajan and the businessman.
The court also ordered Rajan and Khan to be released from custody if they were not required in any other case. Rajan is lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail, serving a life sentence for the 2011 murder of journalist Jyotirmoy Dey. After Rajan’s arrest in Indonesia in 2015 and his deportation to India, the Maharashtra government transferred 71 cases in which his involvement was suspected to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The agency took over the investigation into the Bhosale shooting and registered a case in May 2017. A CBI court granted Rajan bail in the case in May 2025, observing that his custody was not required for the further conduct of the trial. The bail order did not secure his release as he is serving a life sentence in the 2011 murder, apart from being convicted in several other cases.
Friday’s acquittal covers the five accused who faced trial. Two other accused are still absconding. The court directed that the seized properties be preserved for their trial and that a supplementary charge-sheet be filed against them.
