In a significant ruling, the Bombay High Court on Tuesday confirmed the life sentences of two Chhota Rajan gang affiliates for their involvement in the 2010 double murder of Shakeel Modak and Asif Qureshi. Mohammed Ali Shaikh and Pranay Rane, convicted in August 2022, failed to overturn their convictions in the high-profile case, which also saw gang leader Chhota Rajan and two others acquitted due to insufficient evidence.
A division bench, comprising Justices Neela Gokhale and Revati Dere, found the trial court’s decision to be “well-reasoned and legally sound,” dismissing the appeals of Shaikh and Rane. The judges noted that the “evidence on record, when assessed in its entirety, establishes the guilt of the appellants beyond reasonable doubt.”
The case stemmed from a violent altercation on February 13, 2010, near the J J Marg police station in Mumbai. According to Special Prosecutor Pradeep Gharat, four assailants opened fire targeting Asif Khan, an alleged aide of the fugitive underworld figure Dawood Ibrahim. Although Khan survived the assassination attempt, his associates, Modak and Qureshi, were fatally injured and died at the scene.
