The Mumbai Police today arrested a city-based senior woman journalist, Jigna Vora, in connection with the murder of senior investigative journalist Jyotirmoy Dey.
"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 said.
Vora was allegedly in touch with fugitive gangster Chhota Rajan, an accused in the case, and gave him the registration number of Dey"™s bike along with his office and residence addresses. This information was suspected to have been used by the alleged killers to survey and lay the groundwork for the murder, the crime branch has alleged.
Vora, who was questioned by the crime branch in connection with the case several times, will be produced before a Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court later in the day.
Ten people, including Rohee Thangappan Joseph alias Satish Kalya and his associates Abhijeet Shinde, Arun Dake, Sachin Gaikwad, Anil Waghmode, Nilesh Shendge, Mangesh Agawane, Vinod Asrani, Paulson Joseph and Deepak Sisodia, all members of the Rajan gang, have so far been arrested in connection with the case.
The special MCOCA court, on November 5, had granted a 30-day extension to the Mumbai Crime Branch to file chargesheet in the murder of Dey. The Crime Branch was seeking an extension on grounds that it had to investigate the role of Vora.
Dey, 56, was shot dead by motorcycle-borne killers in broad daylight in Mumbai's central suburb of Powai on June 11.
He was widely believed to have been investigating the alleged nexus between the underworld, police and the oil mafia.