Mumbai, May 30 (IANS): A Mumbai Special Court has awarded mafia don Rajendra S. Nikhalje alias Chhota Rajan to life imprisonment after finding him guilty of the 2001 murder of a city-based hotelier Jaya Shetty, here on Thursday.

Special MCOCA Court Judge A.M. Patil found Chhota Rajan guilty under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code and other laws invoked against him in the killing 23 years ago.

The victim Jaya Shetty was the owner of the famed Golden Crown Hotel & Bar in the Grant Road area of south Mumbai, and had run foul of Chhota Rajan and henchmen.

On the night of May 4, 2001, two of Rajan’s shooters allegedly barged into the hotel premises and killed Shetty on the upper floor of the joint, sparking terror in hospitality circles.

Shetty had complained of getting extortion threats and calls from Chhota Rajan’s associates and was provided police security.

Later, he asked for the security to be withdrawn but he became a target barely two months after the security cover was taken away.

This is the second lifer for Chhota Rajan in Mumbai after the life sentence he was given in May 2018 for the sensational daylight killing of journalist J. Dey on June 11, 2011.

One of the dreaded mafia syndicate bosses in Mumbai, Chhota Rajan, 64, sneaked off to Dubai in 1989 and was deported to India from Indonesia in November 2015, after spending nearly 27 years as a fugitive on the run.

In September 2000, Chhota Rajan narrowly escaped a murderous attack on him in a hotel in Bangkok, allegedly ordered by his underworld rival and the wanted terrorist-gangster, Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar.

After that attack, Chhota Rajan again 'disappeared' till he was nabbed by the Indonesian Police in October 2015, and deported to India.