Slain veteran crime journalist Jyotirmoy Dey was laid to rest at a crematorium in Ghatkopar here at around 12 noon Sunday, in the presence of hundreds of journalists, several politicians and police officials from across the city. However, even 24 hours after Dey was shot dead in broad daylight just outside his apartment building, the Mumbai police has been unable to make any headway in the investigation.
Senior police officials maintained through the day that they had a couple of leads, but there was no conclusion so far. Preliminary reports suggest however that Dey was shot at very close rage from a .32 bore revolver. Sources said the killers chose a revolver over a pistol because of its accuracy.
“A pistol may get jammed or the magazine may not release the bullet, but a revolver is known for its accuracy. The shooters too don’t seem to be amateurs. They did not want to miss the chance, and hence professional shooters were arranged to make sure Dey was dead and there was no chance of him escaping with injuries,” an official source said.
The source added, however, that shooters from major gangs use sophisticated pistols. “Shooters of smaller gangs use revolvers, as they don’t have the wherewithal to buy the pistols,” he said.
The official said the police was looking into the theory that it was not the handiwork of the underworld, as they generally do not carry out operations in unfavourable conditions. “It is known the underworld abandons operations in conditions like heavy rain as there are chances of getting caught or losing control of the getaway vehicle. We are investigating as to what was the reason for carrying out the shooting in such conditions,” he said.
When contacted, deputy commissioner of police Nisar Tamboli, official spokesperson of the Mumbai police, said: “We have not made any arrests in the case and we are working on our leads.”
Mr Tamboli added the police had not yet prepared any sketches of the accused based on descriptions given by eyewitnesses. “Right now, we do not know whether any gang or any mafia is behind the killing. We are also awaiting the ballistic reports, which will take some time,” he said.
The police is now going through Dey’s cellphone records. “Although the screen and the phone were completely damaged in the shooting, we have extracted the SIM card from the phone, which was sent to experts. On Sunday we received the data from the SIM card. We have got details of his call logs and messages from the damaged phone and are analysing this,” the source said. A crime branch team also took a laptop and documents from Dey’s residence at Powai for further clues.
The post-mortem reports revealed that five bullets were pumped into Dey’s body from close range. Out of the five, four had hit Dey on the left side of his chest, and one was lodged in his shoulder.
Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan called an emergency meeting at Varsha, his official residence, on Sunday morning, which was also attended by state home minister R.R. Patil and Mumbai police commissioner Arup Patnaik. The CM also announced compensation and additional police protection for the family.
State PWD minister Chhagan Bhujbal paid homage to Dey and told reporters that every effort would be made to bring to book the culprits. Mumbai Congress chief Kripashankar Singh and guardian minister of Mumbai suburbs Naseem Khan attended the cremation.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Sunday expressed shock over Dey’s death asked the state government to leave “no stone unturned” to apprehend the culprits. In a message, Mrs Gandhi expressed “shock and dismay” over Dey’s broad daylight killing, and said that such “dastardly acts” would not be tolerated in civilised society.