 |
|
|
A special court here yesterday extended till December 5 the police custody of Jigna Vora, the woman journalist detained last week in the killing of fellow crime reporter Jyotirmoy Dey, an official said.
Public prosecutor Dilip Shah, while moving the remand application before special judge S M Modak of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court, sought another eight days’ police custody for Vora to enable police carry out more investigations in the case.
He said Vora had sold her mobile phone which she was using around the time Dey was killed and police wanted to trace it. Police have also seized computer hard disks and other material from Vora which they wanted to investigate.
However, the special judge granted police custody
of Vora only till December 5.
The court also rejected the police plea to conduct narco-analysis test on Vora.
Vora’s lawyer argued that her client has expressed an unwillingness to undergo the test following which the court rejected the police plea. An accused cannot be subjected to a narco test without his/her consent as it amounted to testimonial compulsion and violated Articles 20 (3) and 21 of the Constitution, he said.
Working as a deputy bureau chief with a Mumbai daily, Vora was arrested on November 25 by the Crime Branch in connection with the June 11 killing of Dey, the editor (special investigations) at Mid-Day. Dey was shot dead near his home in Powai in central Mumbai.
Vora is among the 11 accused arrested in the case so far by the police.
Besides, police had taken custody of Paulson Joseph, a member of the absconding mafia don Chhota Rajan Nikhalje who had claimed responsibility for Dey’s killing.
Joseph is believed to have given an international mobile SIM card to Vora and some other accused, which were acquired from Dubai and the police wanted to confront the duo with the evidence.
Before being apprehended in Dey’s case, Joseph was held in the May 17 firing at Pakmodia street in Mumbai in which Arif Syed Abu Bukha, bodyguard-cum-driver of Iqbal Kaskar, brother of Dawood Ibrahim, was killed.