Mumbai: A special court in Mumbai on Wednesday jailed gangster Chhota Rajan for life for the "cold-blooded murder" of journalist J. Dey, who was shot dead while returning home in June 2011, but cleared former crime reporter Jigna Vora of the charge of instigating the murder.

Vora, 44, broke down in court after Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) judge Sameer Adkar announced her acquittal. "As far as the accused Jigna Vora is concerned, though the role attributed to her is that she instigated the accused Chhota Rajan to commit the murder of J Dey and that it was she who gave details such as his photograph and the registration number of his motorcycle to Rajan for the purposes of his identification by the other accused, there is no trustworthy evidence against her," Adkar said.

Vora was deputy chief of bureau at The Asian Age when Dey, 56, a senior editor at Mid-Day, was killed in Powai.

According to the prosecution, Rajan was "unhappy" with the negative reports Dey had been writing on his health and diminishing clout.

Police accused Vora of instigating the murder because of "professional rivalry". She was arrested in November 2011 and granted bail in July 2012 on the ground that she was a single parent and that her detention was not required.

"The learned special public prosecutor did not address arguments against Vora with much force. Perhaps, he was also aware about the quality of the evidence against her," the judge said on Wednesday. The court observed that even in the various extra-judicial confessions that Rajan made, he nowhere said he got Dey murdered because of instigation by Vora or anyone else.

"This court has also independently analysed the evidences, who are the relevant witnesses with respect to charges against the accused Vora. However, there is nothing in their evidence to suggest that she instigated Rajan to commit the murder of Dey or that she had any other role in this offence," the order said.

Rajan, deported to India following his arrest at Bali airport in Indonesia in 2015 and watching the proceedings on videoconference from Tihar Jail, said " theek hai" (all right) when the judge read out the sentence and asked if he wanted to say anything.

Eight others convicted were also handed life terms. Judge Adkar relied primarily upon confessions made outside the court by the 61-year-old gangster himself, in phone calls to aides and journalists. PTI