J Dey got into Chhota Rajan's bad books by writing expose

Sooner or later, Chhota Rajan will be brought to book.

That is exactly what mid-day journalist J Dey was trying to do in the months before his death, by writing a book to expose how the dreaded gangster hid behind a fake patriotic mask. Needless to say, Rajan was enraged - to the extent that he ordered a hit on Dey and silenced him forever.

J Dey

Five years later, Rajan has now been booked for the murder in a supplementary charge sheet that the CBI filed in court yesterday. The charge sheet reveals that the mid-day Investigation Editor was planning to retire from journalism soon, and was focused on completing a couple of books on the underworld. While doing research for the books, Dey requested Rajan for a meeting in London and Philippines but also met and interviewed several of Rajan's rivals. This created suspicion in the mind of Rajan and his associates, and the situation got worse when Rajan got wind of what the journalist was writing about him.

Chhota Rajan

Petty issue
J Dey was preparing to publish a book titled ‘Chindis - Rags to Riches', in which Rajan was one of the 20 ‘chindis' featured in the book. The tone of the book was clear from the title - chindi is a slang word that means small-time or petty.

Chhota Rajan took offence to the book J Dey was writing on him, and decided to kill him near this chowk in Powai, where a memorial now stands in his honour. File pic

Rajan had always claimed that he loved his country and was fighting against his rivals - read Dawood Ibrahim - because they were out to destroy India. But Dey's book was about to expose how Rajan was merely exploiting this false patriotism to accumulate more wealth and edge his rivals out of the underworld. Dey was also going to write on how Rajan had shown no concern for those who lost their lives in the process of making him a big name. The charge sheet also states that book would not only damage his image as a don, but also contained personal information that would be unacceptable to those near and dear to Rajan.

To make matters worse, Dey was also writing another book on Rajan's biggest rival, Dawood Ibrahim. But the tone of this book was not as demeaning - it followed Dawood's journey from being a small-time smuggler to becoming an international gangster and global terrorist - without firing a single bullet.

To keep the contents of the first book a secret, Dey decided not to go through the publisher of his earlier two books, but through a Bangalore-based publisher. The concept note was being circulated in January 2011. But the contents of the book were leaked to Rajan through his deceased aide Vinod Asrani, and a journalist.