Dey murder: Mumbai reporter held for abetting Chhota Rajan
25 Nov 2011
Mumbai-based crime reporter Jigna Vora was today arrested by the Mumbai police in connection with the murder of journalist J Dey, who was gunned down in broad daylight by six motorcycle-borne assassins on 11 June.
Police seem virtually convinced that the notorious Chhota Rajan gang is behind the murder. Today, they unofficially claimed that Vora was in telephonic touch with Rajan and provided the killers with Dey's motorcycle number. Dey was riding home on his bike on that fatal day.
"Jigna Vora, deputy bureau chief of English daily Asian Age, has been arrested today as she played a role in the conspiracy hatched to murder J Dey," Joint Police Commissioner (Crime) Himanshu Roy told newspersons officially.
Before Vora's arrest, the crime branch of the Mumbai police had arrested 10 other persons, including top cricket bookie Vinod Ashrani and Chhota Rajan hatchet-man Satish Kalya in connection with the murder.
The state government even invoked the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) Act in the case.
Vora was produced in the designated MCOCA court, and remanded in police custody till 1 December.
Numerous conspiracy theories are going around since Vora's arrest. The world of Mumbai crime reporting is almost as murky as the Mumbai underworld itself; and some say Dey and Vora (belonging to rival papers Mid-Day and Asian Age) had long been at loggerheads, favouring different underworld gangs in their reports.
One can only hope that this is a case where the once-vaunted Mumbai police will rise to their old reputation, and crack to everybody's satisfaction.