19 June,2011 07:06 AM IST | | SMD team
Anna Hazare writes to PM demanding a law for the protection of journalists, police still clueless
Nine days after the daylight murder of MiD DAY journalist Jyotirmoy Dey, Mumbai police, once considered second only to Scotland Yard, is still groping in the dark, with no substantial clues or breakthrough to report.
This, despite the fact that police are under pressure to produce results since they have to produce a status report in the Bombay High Court on June 21, two days away.
Sources say several tapes of CCTV footage have been sent to forensic laboratories in Bengaluru for verification, as the heavy rain on the day blurred the footage. Police are also recording statements of suspects and Dey's colleagues.u00a0
Last Thursday, the High Court directed Maharashtra government and Mumbai police to file a status report on the developments in the probe, based on petition filed by lawyer V P Patil and former journalist Ketan Tirodkar, seeking a CBI probe into Dey's killing.
Meanwhile, top officials of the Mumbai police are giving differing accounts of progress made on the case.
Himanshu Roy, joint commissioner of Police (Crime) told a journalist on Saturday that it would take only two more days to crack the case. Roy claimed that the police has recorded more than 100 statements. On the other hand, the Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Deven Bharati told this reporter that there has been no breakthrough in the case.
Activist Anna Hazare too has thrown his weight behind the matter, by writing a letter to the PM, demanding that a strong law to protect journalists be put in place to prevent such incidents from recurring.
"This is an attack on democracy and a tough law needs to be implemented by the central government to check any such instances involving journalists in the future," Hazare told a news channel.
Jyotirmoy Dey, editor (special investigations) at Mid Day, was shot dead on June 11 by four unidentified motorcycle-borne assailants in Powai on Saturday afternoon.
