A special court in Mumbai on Wednesday sentenced gangster Chhota Rajan and eight others to life for their role in the murder of journalist Jyotirmoy Dey seven years ago, News18 reported.

Earlier in the day, the court, set up under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, had convicted them and acquitted journalists Jigna Vora and Joseph Paulsen. A 12th accused had died in 2015.

Dey, a crime reporter, was shot dead in Mumbai’s Powai locality on June 11, 2011, while he was returning home. Charges were framed against Chhota Rajan in September 2016. He had denied any role in Dey’s murder.

According to a supplementary chargesheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation, Dey was killed at the behest of the gangster as he was not happy with the journalist’s articles and because Dey had planned book in which Rajan was purportedly portrayed as a “chindi” or small fry. The journalist was about to write a book, titled Chindi rags to riches, where he wanted tell the stories of 20 gangsters who came from humble backgrounds.

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”.