Mumbai, May 2 (DC): Nearly seven years after Mumbai journalist Jyotirmoy Dey was shot dead in surburban Mumbai, a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Wednesday convicted gangster Chhota Rajan in the case.

However, the MCOCA court has acquitted journalist Jigna Vora and another accused, Joseph Paulsen.

Additional Sessions Judge Sameer Adkar had on April 3 fixed May 2 for the verdict.

According to the prosecution, Dey was shot on the orders of gangster Chhota Rajan, who was allegedly instigated by another journalist, Jigna Vora, who worked with a different newspaper at the time. The court tried 11 people in the case.

Crime journalist Dey was shot dead on June 11, 2011, when he was on his way home in Powai.

The prosecution said Chhota Rajan’s men — Satish Kalya, Anil Waghmode, Abhijeet Shinde, Nilesh Shendge, Arun Dake, Mangesh Agawane and Sachin Gaikwad — had followed Dey from his mother’s house. Kaliya shot him with a .32 bore pistol near Powai garden, and the gang fled.

During the trial, special public prosecutor Pradeeep Gharat also claimed that Rajan planned to kill Dey because of the articles he published in a city tabloid, and for unpublished books on Rajan’s life.

In its charge sheet, the Mumbai crime branch said Dey had written two articles on Rajan — on May 30, 2011, and June 2, 2011.

The CBI took over the investigation after Rajan was arrested in 2015. The agency said Rajan tried several times between January and March 2011 to stop Dey from writing stories or books about him.