The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a plea filed by the CBI challenging a Bombay High Court order that suspended the life sentence of gangster Chhota Rajan in the 2001 murder case of hotelier Jaya Shetty and granted him bail.

A three-judge bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sanjay Karol and Sandeep Mehta issued notice to Rajan and sought his response within four weeks.

"Issue notice, returnable within four weeks. In the meantime, counsel for the petitioner shall also clear the defects as pointed out by the Registry," the bench said.

In May last year, a special court convicted Rajan for murdering Shetty and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

Rajan filed an appeal in the HC against the conviction. In its order passed on October 23, 2024, the HC suspended his sentence and granted bail.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has challenged the HC order.

Shetty, who owned the Golden Crown hotel at Gamdevi in central Mumbai, was shot dead by two members of Rajan's gang on the hotel's first floor on May 4, 2001.

A probe suggested that Shetty had received extortion calls from Hemant Pujari, a member of the Chhota Rajan gang, and was killed after he failed to pay the money.

Rajan, already serving a life term for the murder of veteran crime reporter J Dey, is currently lodged in Delhi's Tihar jail.

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