- Friday, April 26, 2024
By: Pramod Thomas
THE All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and Delhi police have denied reports that Indian gangster Rajendra Nikalje alias Chhota Rajan, 62, died due to Covid-19.
On Friday (7), local media reported that Rajan died at AIIMS in Delhi.
Rajan was admitted at the hospital since the past month after he contracted the coronavirus infection.
According to reports, he was considered as a high-risk patient as he suffered from a slew of comorbidities including diabetes, heart problem, kidney failure, hernia, laparotomy and hypertension.
Rajan’s admission to the AIIMS was confirmed on April 26 after the assistant jailer at Tihar jail telephonically informed the sessions court that they could not produce Rajan via video conference before the judge as has tested positive for Covid-19 and has been taken to the hospital, local media reported.
The gangster was lodged in the high security Tihar jail since his extradition from Indonesia back in 2015.
Rajan was facing around 70 criminal cases pertaining to extortion and murder in Mumbai which were transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). A special court was constituted to try them, reports said.
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.
