Gangster Rajendra Nikalje, alias Chhota Rajan, has tested positive for COVID-19 and admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Services (AIIMS) in New Delhi. Tihar jail authorities informed this to a session court on April 26.
Rajan, 61, was lodged in the high security Tihar prison in New Delhi since his arrest after deportation from Bali, Indonesia in 2015.
All the criminal cases pending against him in Mumbai were transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and a special court was constituted to try them.
On April 26, an assistant jailer of the Tihar jail telephonically informed the sessions court that they could not produce Rajan via video conference before the judge for hearing in a case as the gangster has tested positive for COVID-19 and admitted to the AIIMS.
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Rajan is facing as many as 70 criminal cases pertaining to extortion and murder in Mumbai.
In 2018, Rajan was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in the 2011 murder case of journalist Jyotirmoy Dey. Last week, the special CBI court in Mumbai acquitted Rajan and his aide in connection with the murder of Hanif Kadawala, an accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts case.
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