Woman journalist held over editor’s murder

A woman journalist with an English newspaper here was yesterday arrested for alleged involvement in senior journalist Jyotirmoy Dey’s killing, sending shock waves in the media industry.Jigna Vora, who works for The Asian Age, was summoned by the Crime Branch for investigations into the Dey murder case and placed under arrest. She will be in police custody till December 1.Hussain Zaidi, resident editor of the Asian Age, said Vora was innocent. “Jigna is innocent. I am aware about all her sources she followed for her stories as a reporter. She has done nothing wrong and I am with her, as an editor and as part of the organisation we work for,” Zaidi said.“The truth will come out. But we will all need to be patient and wait till she is proved innocent,” he added.A special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court remanded her to police custody until December 1 in connection with the June 11 murder of Dey. “Prima facie, she was involved in the murder of Dey and hence we have arrested her,” said Mumbai police commissioner Arup Patnaik.“This is not a flash arrest. The ground work has been done and her mobile phone seized,” he added.Vora had allegedly provided Dey’s mobile and bike number and his exact location to mafia don Chhota Rajan, who had ordered the journalist’s killing, police said.Rajan later claimed responsibility for the murder.Vora has worked with several Mumbai-based newspapers and is the 11th person to be arrested in the case. She had also covered the murder of Dey and written several stories on the crime.The MCOCA court remanded her to police custody under Sections 302 (murder) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy).Dey, Mid-day’s editor (special investigations), was gunned down near his residence in Powai in central Mumbai by motorcycle borne assailants. Dey’s family yesterday demanded capital punishment for his killers.Dey’s mother Bina Dey told mediapersons at her home that the family was satisfied by the police investigations into the killing.