Bombay HC Upholds Journalist Jigna Vora's Acquittal in J Dey Murder Case

The Bombay High Court has upheld the acquittal of former journalist Jigna Vora in the murder of senior journalist Jyotirmoy Dey. Court held that there was no direct evidence to prove Vora's involvement in her colleague's murder.

Division bench of Justice BP Dharmadhikari and Justice SK Shinde was hearing CBI's appeal against judgement dated May 2, 2018 passed by a Special Court. In the said judgement, Vora was acquitted along with accused Paulson Palitara for lack of evidence.

Vora, a former deputy editor of Asian Age has been accused by the CBI of giving crucial information about Dey to Rajendra Sadashiv Nikalje, also known as Chhota Rajan, who was held guilty under Sections 302, 120-B of the IPC and Section 3(1)(i), 3(2) and 3(4) of the Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act (MCOCA) and sentenced to life imprisonment for Dey's murder.

Along with Rajan, eight others were found guilty of the said charges and have been sentenced to life. They are Rohee Joseph, Anil Waghmode, Abhijit Shinde, Nilesh Shedge, Arun Duke, Mangesh Agvane, Sachin Gaikwad and Deepak Sisodia.

CBI had alleged in their charge sheet that Vora was jealous of Dey who was a veteran crime journalist working with Mid-Day Eveninger and she instigated Chhota Rajan against him.

Dey was shot dead in Powai on June 11, 2011, by gunmen in broad day light. According to the CBI, Vora had also provided Rajan with crucial details about Dey like his motorcycle number, photo, address and also an idea about Dey's timings in order to facilitate the murder.

The Mumbai Police Crime Branch filed its charge sheet in the case on December 3, 2011. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a supplementary charge sheet on August 5, 2016.

CP Patnaik, the sanctioning authority under the MCOCA Act, had stated before the trial court that he had considered the conduct of Jigna Vora, former Deputy Editor of The Asian Age, immediately prior to the incident i.e., she had gone on leave one or two days prior to the incident and had returned on the job after about 10 days of the incident, during that time she was not accessible, that she had written a news article suggesting that drug peddlers from the UK could have been behind the murder of J Dey.

After examining the call data records of Vora, the sim and mobile phone recovered from her, bench concluded that the same had failed to connect Vora directly to the case.

"There is no direct evidence showing that the accused had any knowledge of the crime, so it cannot be held that Vora was complicit in the conspiracy to kill Dey," Court observed.