Just Short Of Full Disclosure

For slain journo J. Dey’s kin, it’s the end of a seven-year wait for justice—almost, for one accused is still in Dubai.

- Neel Shah

WHEN the special MCOCA court convicted Chota Rajan and eight others in the Jyotirmoy Dey murder case and acquitted journalist Jigna Vora, a closure seemed in sight for Dey’s family. For Vora, who had been held in jail for eight months until bail was granted, it was the end of a nightmare. At the time of her arrest, five months after Dey’s killing on June 11, 2011, Vora, then 37 years old and a single mother, was the deputy chief of bureau at The Asian Age. The court said the prosecution failed to prove she had passed on crucial details about Dey’s whereabouts and his bike registration number to the Rajan gang because of their professional rivalry as crime reporters.

When he was killed, Dey was heading the investigation team in the tabloid Mid-Day and had done several stories about the Rajan gang. Besides Vora, sha­rp hooter Satish Kalya, Rajan’s associate Paulson Joseph alias Pol and cricket bookie­ turned­ builder Vinod Asrani alias Vinod Chembur were also among those arrested in the case. While Pol was acquitted, Asrani died due to liver failure. Incidentally, the police officer who played a key role in the arrests committed suicide on May 11. Himanshu Roy’s suicide note mentioned his long battle with cancer.