A day after three people were detained and let off after questioning in connection with the murder of Mid-Day crime reporter Jyotirmoy Dey, the Bombay High Court today hauled up the Maharashtra Government, and asked it to file a status report on the probe by June 21.
The court has also allowed intervention applications filed by the Press Club, Mumbai and Marathi Patrakar Parishad seeking a CBI probe into Dey's murder.
The application has sought probe in the mafia-police-politician nexus. The High Court has directed for filing of investigation to be produced and that the state may consider filing a reply to the same.
Three suspects - Anwar Shaikh, Mateen, and Iqbal Hatela believed to be associated with gangster Chhota Shakeel were picked for questioning yesterday to ascertain their possible role in Dey's killing. The police informed that the trio would be called for questioning if required.
The police said that the trio was picked by the Powai police from Mumbra in adjoining Thane district and handed over to the Crime Branch, which is probing the case.
The police also seized a car in possession of Anwar. The vehicle was suspected to have been used in Dey’s murder.
The postmortem report of Dey indicated that he was shot from close range. The report also shows that five bullets hit him, of which, four hit him in the left chest and one was lodged under the right shoulder
Jyotirmoy Dey was India's best-connected writer on the Mumbai underworld. He spent most of his reporting career bringing out accounts of the goings-on in the Mumbai underworld for several newspapers.
He also wrote a book titled ‘Zero Dial: The Dangerous World of Informers’ and ‘Khallas’ - considered a dictionary on the Mumbai underworld.