’No-denial’ strategy paid off, says RR Patil

Speaking exclusively to MiD DAY, the relieved Home Minister said that their strategy of not issuing denials on media reports had successfully misled three of the seven assailants and landed them in the police trap

'No-denial' strategy paid off, says RR Patil

INDULGING in a little back patting after the J Dey case was claimed to have been cracked by the Mumbai Police yesterday, a visibly relieved R R Patil said the Home Ministry's "meticulously planned strategy" of refraining from issuing denials on media reports related to the murder had worked to perfection.

Home Minister RR Patil said that with the accused arrested it would not be long before the police unravelled the entire conspiracy in the J Dey murder case and justice would be delivered

Speaking to MiD DAY hours after Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Himanshu Roy went public with the news of the seven arrests, Patil attributed this claim to three of Dey's assailants returning to Mumbai from their hiding spots because they were under the impression that the police were working on very different leads and would not catch them.

"The police did not issue a denial for any story that appeared in the media be it sandalwood smuggling, oil mafia, personal enmity, involvement of a police officer, real estate war, a trip to the UK and other countries or the stories Dey did in the past.

The strategy was worked out with the objective of getting the assailants to believe that the police were unable to arrive at any conclusion and investigations were headed in a different direction from the actual one," said the Home Minister.

"It finally paid off and three of the seven assailants returned to Mumbai only to fall right into the police trap," he added.

Patil said that the police had also maintained confidentiality about the arrests of a few of the seven assailants to ensure that the others were not alerted.

'Thorough job'
Stating that the case was taken very seriously as a senior journalist had been targeted and because it was an attack on the fourth estate, Patil said the investigation was as comprehensive as it would have been for any bomb blast case.

"Around 10 teams, comprising over 300 policemen from the Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane police were involved in the investigation," said Patil. A senior officer confirmed that the J Dey case was probably the first wherein policemen were involved in such a large number.

"The case was a challenge for the Mumbai Police as a prominent figure from the city's media had been killed. But, we were confident that we would crack it as no such important case had gone undetected as yet. The only question was the time it would take us to get there," said Patil.

"Various angles needed to be probed as Dey had covered stories on nearly the entire spectrum of crime in the city. And, to ensure that the probe was conducted properly, police officers with expertise in cracking cases from different sectors were handpicked for the case," he added.

Not long now
Patil said that since the arrested accused arrested have a history of criminal activity, the police will not take too long to unravel the whole conspiracy. He also showered praise on the police teams for doing good work despite the ever-growing clamour for the case to be transferred to the CBI.

The Home Minister also said that it was sometimes inevitable for the police to take time in solving a case or arresting a person, like it did in the case of Uday Pathak, the prime suspect in the Kurar quadruple murders.

"The police needs some time to arrest people like Pathak, who had closeted himself in a small room and switched off his mobile phones," he signed off.