Mumbai: Gangster Chhota Rajan had ordered the killing of senior journalist J Dey as he wanted to send out a message to the mediapersons, general public and his rivals that his organised crime syndicate was still "alive and kicking", observed a special court here.
Special MCOCA judge Sameer Adkar, in his judgement in Dey's murder case delivered yesterday, also said that Rajan's "ego would have been hurt" by the articles written by the journalist.
The court sentenced Rajan and eight others to life imprisonment for the murder committed here in June 2011 but acquitted two others, including a former journalist Jigna Vora, citing lack of evidence.
In the 599-page judgement, Adkar observed that Rajan was angered by the articles written by Dey and felt that the journalist was showing him in a poor and weak position and was glorifying his rival Dawood Ibrahim.
"When the statements made by J Dey in the articles are considered from the point of view of a criminal mind then certainly these would anger a criminal mind. On reading such news, a criminal mind will feel that he was undervalued, demeaned and was shown to be very weak in comparison to his arch rival. Ego would have been hurt," the judgement said.
It added that the articles written by J Dey had the potential to affect the activities of the organised syndicate as the articles not only showed Rajan in a very weak position but also desperate to show that he had a very strong hold in the underworld.