J Dey murder
There were no eyewitnesses to the incident even though it happened in a public spot.
Dey was Editor (Investigations) at Mid-day newspaper and according to the CBI, the journalist’s articles on the Mumbai underworld had angered Rajan. Between January and March 2011, Rajan contacted Dey numerous times because the gangster felt Dey was belittling him in his writings. Rajan took particular offence to Dey describing him as “chindi” (petty) in a book on Mumbai’s gangsters that Dey was planning to publish. Just a month before his murder, Dey had tried to interview Rajan for the book, but this meeting ultimately did not take place. Instead, Rajan issued orders to eliminate the journalist “to send a message to the journalist community,” according to the CBI investigation.
The prosecution alleged that Vora had instigated Rajan into ordering Dey’s murder. However, the court stated that the prosecution had failed to prove her involvement. Vora and Paulson Joseph, a member of Rajan’s gang, were acquitted because there was insufficient evidence against them.
Rajan, Kalia, Waghmode, Shinde, Shedge, Dake, Agawane, Gaikwad, Deepak Sisodia and Vinod Asrani (who died during the trial) were all convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. The court also imposed a heavy fine against the convicted.
Arup Patnaik, who was Police Comissioner of Mumbai at the time of Dey’s murder, said: “I feel relieved. This is the first time that an underworld don has been convicted in a regular (murder) case.” claimed, adding that Ali himself was reluctant because he was a Muslim and worried about the reaction to their wedding. Ali was also unwilling to get married because he was the only support for his parents, the friend added. According to him, Ali earned around ₹6,000 a month.
The incident comes three months after a 23-year-old man was killed in front of his parents on a busy street in west Delhi, allegedly by family members of a woman he was in a relationship with. The family of the woman, identified only by her first name Shehzadi (20), was opposed to her relationship with Ankit Saxena, as they were from different communities.
It also follows several incidents of communal killings in Rajasthan, including that of a labourer from Bengal, Mohammed Afrazul, in Rajsamand last year. Afrazul was allegedly hacked to death by a man named Shambhulal Regar, who recorded the killing on his cellphone. In April 2017, cow trader Pehlu Khan died at a hospital after alleged assaulted by cow vigilantes in Alwar district. Later that year, a 35-year-old cow trader, Umar Mohammed, was found with bullet injuries on railway tracks in the same district. The police arrested two cow vigilantes in the case.