मुंबई क्राइम ब्रांच 4 नवम्बर तक जेडे हत्याकांड में अपनी चार्जशीट दाखिल करेगी. संभावना है कि इस चार्जशीट में छोटा राजन को ही वांटेड दिखाया जाएगा. इस हत्याकांड में 100 से ज्यादा लोगों को गवाह बनाया गया है, जिसमें कई पत्रकार भी शामिल हैं. जेडे हत्याकांड में एक अंग्रेजी दैनिक के पत्रकार का नाम भी संदिग्ध लोगों की लिस्ट में आया है. इस पत्रकार ने जाने-अनजाने छोटा राजन को जेडे की बाइक का नम्बर, घर और ऑफिस का पता दिया था.
संभावना है कि सबूतों के अभाव में इस पत्रकार का नाम चार्जशीट में नहीं होगा, पर क्राइम ब्रांच ने इस पत्रकार को अपनी संदिग्ध सूची में डाल रखा है. इस पत्रकार के एक लेख पर भी क्राइम ब्रांच की नजर है. पत्रकार की भूमिका को लेकर एक खबर मुंबई मिरर ने भी प्रकाशित की है.
The J Dey murder charge sheet, scheduled to be submitted to the MCOCA court before November 4, is likely include what has been an open secret in police and journalistic circles: that a journalist had a crucial role to play in the senior scribe's killing. Highly placed sources in the Crime Branch told this newspaper that the charge sheet may point a finger of suspicion, if not directly implicate the said journalist.
J Dey, who reported on the underworld for a city tabloid, was gunned down by four motorcycle-borne assailants on June 11 in Powai. Mumbai Crime Branch, a month later, arrested 11 accused who said they had conducted the operation on the instructions of Underworld don Chhota Rajan. Later, Rajan himself gave interviews to TV channels claiming responsibility for the murder.
The journalist who works with a mainstream broadsheet came under the police radar after investigations revealed that it was this reporter who gave Chhota Rajan the registration number of J Dey's bike as also his office and residential address.
It was based on this information, alleges Crime Branch, that Rajan aide Satish Kaliya and his associates carried a reconnaissance of J Dey's office and residence, watched his movements and finally shot him dead while he was returning from his mother's home in Ghatkopar.
Crucially, police, however, believe that the journalist played the role of an intermediary unwittingly and had no malafied intentions towards J Dey.
To support its claim of the journalist’s involvement, the agency has attached the statement of yet another journalist who has stated that Rajan in an interview after the murder admitted that he had got J Dey’s personal details from the reporter under suspicion. The agency is also in possession of certain recordings that corroborate this claim.
To bolster its allegation the Crime Branch has also cited some circumstantial and incidental evidences. It has added that it was this journalist who told Rajan that J Dey had been writing ill about him in his reports. Weeks before he died, J Dey had written two reports that indicated waning influence of Rajan in the underworld.
Famously the underworld don does not read newspapers choosing to get his information from TV. "We have information that it was this journalist who told him about J Dey’s reports which in turn infuriated him enough to order kill," said a Crime Branch officer who did not wish to come on record.
He reiterated that the journalist was unaware that Rajan would take such a drastic step. "The journalist also did not know why Rajan sought the registration number of J Dey’s bike. The journalist was over-eager to help Rajan in an effort to become the don’s confidante and get exclusive stories from the gang. J Dey himself had been very close to Rajan and his men for several years," said the officer.
Sources who have worked on the charge sheet added details of an incident that indicated professional rivalry between this journalist and Dey. A few months before Rajan’s chief aide Farid Tanashah was gunned down in his Tilak Nagar house, J Dey along with a colleague had gone to meet Tanashah at his residence.
While he was leaving the house, the concerned journalist arrived and there was heated arguement between the two over whose source Tanashah really was. The journalist, alleges Crime Branch, warned J Dey not to venture near Tanashah.
Putting together its case after several interviews with other crime reporters, the agency has questioned the conduct, if not the intent, of the journalist post the murder. "The journalist should have come to police after his murder and told us that Rajan had sought details related to J Dey. Instead, the journalist chose to write misleading reports about Iqbal Mirchi being involved in the murder," said the officer. The said journalist has already been questioned and has denied all charges. Courtesy : Mumbai mirror
