Mumbai Police was on Sunday probing if the oil mafia had any hand in the killing of senior investigative journalist Jyotirmoy Dey even as Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said there was no ‘solid evidence’ yet to crack the case.
Chavan held an emergency meeting at his residence and took stock of the investigations during which he directed Mumbai Police Commissioner Arup Patnaik to quickly arrest the culprits involved in Saturday’'s incident.
A senior police officer, on the condition of anonymity, said, “We are probing the incident from all angles. But our line of investigation is going towards checking the possible involvement of people associated with the oil mafia. The journalist had extensively written a number of news reports on the oil mafia, which may have triggered them to eliminate him.”
"We have a reason to believe that the killers must have been hired from outside Mumbai or maybe from outside Maharashtra," the officer said, adding four teams have been formed by the Crime Branch to probe the matter on a priority basis.
It was on Saturday that four motorbike-borne men gunned down Dey (56), Editor (Special Investigation) with an English eveninger 'Mid-Day' in suburban Powai.
Chavan later talking to reporters termed Dey's murder as a ‘heinous crime’ and said the government was confident of getting leads in the case soon.
"I took stock of investigations so far in the murder case. Till now we have not got strong evidence. The Home ministry and the police department are carrying out investigation. We are expecting to get leads soon," he said.
"This is a very serious crime and we will get to the bottom of it," he added.
Dey's last rites were performed at suburban Ghatkopar. Print and electronic media personnel were present in large numbers.
A report of the post-mortem report conducted by government-run J J Hospital says that five bullets were fired at Dey. While four bullets pierced through his body, one bullet had got stuck in his right chest, a police officer said.
"Three bullets hit his left arm and one his left part of the chest. One bullet had got stuck in his right part of the chest," said the officer.
State Home Minister R R Patil, Police Commissioner Arup Patnaik, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Himanshu Roy, Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and order) Rajnish Seth and several senior government officers were present at the meeting called by the Chief Minister.
Talking to the reporters after the meeting, Home Minister R R Patil said that necessary measures would be taken by the government to protect the journalists.
He also said that special police teams have been constituted to arrest the culprits in the present case.
Adequate security will be provided to Dey's family members, official sources said.