Chhota Rajan, 3 others awarded 7-year jail term in fake passport case

NEW DELHI: A special court on Tuesday awarded seven years in jail to gangster Chhota Rajan and three other accused in the fake passport case.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 15,000 on each of them.
CBI special judge Virender Kumar Goyal heard arguments on the sentencing of Rajan and others before pronouncing the quantum of punishment to be awarded to the convicts.
On Monday, the Patiala House Court had convicted Chhota Rajan , aka Rajendra Sadashiv Nikhalje, and three government officials in connection with the case.
The court had framed charges against Rajan and then passport officers Jayashree Dattatray Rahate, Deepak Natvarlal Shah and Lalitha Lakshmanan in June last year.
All four accused 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 CBI in its chargesheet alleged that Chhota Rajan was issued a fake passport from Bengaluru in 1998-99 in connivance with the others.
While the three former government officials are out on bail, Rajan is in judicial custody.
Rajan is accused in over 85 cases, ranging from murder to extortion, smuggling and drug trafficking.
He has cases pending against him in Maharashtra, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and with the CBI.
The don, held by the Indonesian police on October 25, 2015, was deported to India on November 6, 2015 after being on the run for 27 years.
(With inputs from Agencies)