Mumbai, Feb 21: The Mumbai crime branch on Tuesday filed a supplementary chargesheet in the sensational murder of senior crime reporter Jyotirmoy Dey, which detailed the role allegedly played by journalist Jigna Vora.
She has been booked under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, Arms Act and the Bombay Police Act at the sessions court in Mumbai. She has been charged under under various sections of the Indian Penal Code including murder, criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence. Five volumes comprising nearly 1000 pages have been filed.
The special MCOCA court took cognisance of the chargesheet and extended the custody of all accused till March 12. Jigna has been shown as the 11th accused in the case.
The crime branch, which is investigating the murder of the MiD DAY journalist, had on December 3 filed its first chargesheet in the case against against 12 accused including fugitive underworld don Chhota Rajan which did not name Vora, who was arrested on November 25.
Vora, deputy chief of bureau of Asian Age was arrested on November 25 last year under MCOCA on charges of supplying a licence plate number of the motorcycle and address of the slain journalist to Rajan.
Dey was claimed to have been shot dead on the orders of Rajan, who allegedly gave Rs 5 lakh to the accused for the contract killing that took place in suburban Powai on June 11.
The chargesheet had described the role of each accused but did not mention that of Vora who has now been named in the supplementary charge sheet. 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 accused and Rajan.
The accused against whom chargesheet had been filed were 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 under MCOCA charges. Rajan and his aide Nayan Singh Bisht were shown as absconding.
According to the police, two articles written by Dey against Rajan on May 31 and June 2 could have cost the journalist his life. Though the first chargesheet filed in the case had not named Vora, the police suspected that her professional rivalry with Dey could have led her to get involved in the sensational killing. Crime branch sources said Vora had spoken to Rajan over the phone quite a few times before the crime.
The chargesheet had named 176 witnesses and had on record the statements made by them. Three of the arrested accused -- Paulson Joseph, Deepak Sisodia and Arun Dake -- had also given their confession in keeping with provisions of MCOCA.
The chargesheet 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 chargesheet, 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 5 lakh contract money to the killers. The 3,055-page chargesheet ran into three volumes.
