'Dey silenced as he was to expose match fixing in IPL'

Mumbai, July 25: Mumbai journalist Jyotirmoy Dey, who was gunned down last year, was planning to expose the match-fixing racket in the IPL tournament, which resulted in his killing, a top opposition leader claimed here Wednesday.

Leader of opposition in Maharashtra legislative council Vinod Tawde claimed in the house that Dey had information on the betting and match-fixing racket in IPL because of which he was "silenced".

Crime journalist Dey, 56, was the Editor (Investigations) of Mumbai tabloid Mid-Day when he was gunned down June 11 ,2011, near his residence in Powai by some motor-cycle borne assailants.

Tawde of Bharatiya Janata Party further contended that another Mumbai journalist Jigna Vora was arrested in the case as a diversionary tactic to combat the growing media pressures.

Vora, deputy bureau chief of The Asian Age, was nabbed Nov 25, 2011 for allegedly conspiring in Dey's killing along with the mafia.

According to Tawde, the media had been building up intense pressure on the police and government to solve Dey's murder case and Vora's arrest was intended to divide the media fraternity.

He urged further investigations in the sensational case to determine whether mafia don Chhota Rajan Nikhalje or his rival Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar were behind the killing.

So far, police have investigated around a dozen persons, including Vora for their role in Dey's sensational killing which shocked Mumbaikars and the entire country's media fraternity.

They have been charged under various stringent provisions of the law, including the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) and are presently in custody.