Mumbai: The Mumbai Crime Branch today filed it’s charge sheet against journalist Jigna Vora under stringent provisions of MCOCA and various other penal offences for her alleged role in the sensational murder of senior crime reporter J Dey.
Dey, working with city-based tabloid 'Mid Day', was shot dead allegedly on Chota Rajan's orders. Screengrab from IBNlive.com
Vora has been charged under various sections of IPC including murder, criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence, besides stringent provisions of Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) and the Arms Act.
The special MCOCA court took cognisance of the charge sheet and extended the custody of all accused till March 12.
Jigna is the 11th accused person in the case.
The Crime Branch, investigating the murder of Mid Day journalist Jyotirmoy Dey, had on December 3 filed its first chargesheet in the case against 12 accused including fugitive underworld don Chhota Rajan.
The 3055-page chargesheet did not mention Vora, who was arrested on November 25.
Dey was allegedly shot dead on the orders of Rajan, who paid Rs 5 lakh to the accused for the contract killing that took place in suburban Powai on June 11.
Vora, Deputy Chief of Bureau of the Asian Age newspaper, was arrested under MCOCA on charges of supplying Dey’s motorcycle licence plate number and address to his killers.
The police had seized her mobile phones and computer records.
According to police sources, Vora’s name had figured in the telephonic conversations between the other persons accused in the case and Rajan.
The accused against whom a charge sheet had been filed earlier are Rohee Thangappan Joseph alias Satish Kalya, Abhijeet Shinde, Arun Dake, Sachin Gaikwad, Anil Waghmode, Nilesh Shendge, Mangesh Agawane, Vinod Asrani, Paulson Joseph and Deepak Sisodia.
All of them are in custody facing charges under MCOCA.
Chhota Rajan and his aide Nayan Singh Bisht have been named as absconding accused in the case.
According to police, two articles written by Dey against Rajan on May 31 and June 2 could have cost the journalist his life.
Though the first charge sheet filed in the case had not named Vora, police suspected that her professional rivalry with Dey could have led her to get involved in the murder. Crime branch sources said Vora had spoken to Rajan
over phone quite a few times before the crime.
The charge sheet had recorded the statements of 176 witnesses.
Three of the arrested accused–Paulson Joseph, Deepak Sisodia and Arun Dake– had also given confessions under provisions of MCOCA.
The charge sheet said Satish Kalya, Anil Waghmode, Arun Dake, Abijeet Shinde, Nilesh Shendge, Sachin Gaikwad and Mangesh Agawane were at the scene of the crime.
According to the charge sheet, Kalya had fatally shot Dey, while Vinod Asrani had shown the target to Anil and Dake.
Absconding accused Nayan Singh and Sisodia had supplied weapons to the accused, while Paulson had given Rs five lakh to the killers.
PTI