Charges were framed against gangster Chhota Rajan on Wednesday in connection with the murder of journalist J Dey by a special court that deals with cases related to Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act. A Central Bureau of Investigation official said the charges included sections 302 (murder) and 120-b (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code."

Rajan has pleaded not guilty in the case. The court will hear the case next on September 7. The prosecution and the defence will be allowed to re-examine witnesses, reported The Hindu. The underworld don was deported from Bali to India around 11 months ago.

On August 5, the investigating agency had filed a supplementary chargesheet in the case, where investigators had held that the 59-year-old gangster got Dey killed in June 2011 because he was not happy with the journalist's articles and planned book in which he was purportedly portrayed as "chindi" or small fry. The journalist was about to write a books titled Chindi rags to riches where he wanted tell the stories of 20 gangsters who hailed from humble backgrounds.

The investigators said Rajan believed that Dey was working with the gangster's arch rival Dawood Ibrahim. He also told an aide that journalist Jigna Vora had told him several times that Dey “is writing wrong things and is in touch with the other gang and was a traitor”. Vora is a co-accused in the case. The gangster has 71 cases against him in Maharashtra alone.