City police put theories to rest

Cops have managed to kick aside many competing theories and focus on a couple that may lead them to Dey's murderers, 16 days after shootout

City police put theories to rest

Cops have managed to kick aside many competing theories and focus on a couple that may lead them to Dey's murderers, 16 days after shootout

While the Mumbai police have yet not been able to zero down on the killers of MiD DAY scribe J Dey or direct the probe along a single course, they have made some headway in putting a bulk of the myriad theories to rest.

Sixteen days after J Dey was murdered, the cops have narrowed down the list of suspects

There were a number of hypotheses the police were working on to explain the journalist's gruesome murder in Powai on June 11.

The theories kept snowballing given the extensive issues related to crime that Dey reported about on a daily basis as the police uncovered new angles and fresh clues.

But after 16 days of investigation, they have not been able to ascertain who gunned Dey down in the glare of the daylight and the public eye.

They have, however, put certain theories to rest. According to cops, this has helped them focus on a few things, without frittering time and effort on empty speculation.

Though the Mumbai Police and Crime Branch are not sure of the assailants' identity or their handlers', they have been questioning people at the top of their list of suspects, which has considerably narrowed down, officials said.

Earlier, they were interrogating all characters that featured even vaguely in their countless theories.

"Until a week ago, everyone was on the lookout for Mateen and his associates and hardly worked on other parallel aspects.

Later, there were theories implicating the sandalwood smugglers, the oil mafia, a railway police official, a personal case and so on. But now we are more focused on a couple of things, one of them in particular," said a senior police official, requesting anonymity and refusing to reveal more lest it hinder investigations.

Asked whether the police are now dealing with a few theories after having put many aside, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Himanshu Roy said, "We are working on it."

Police sources said almost all the evidence including phone call records, closed-circuit television footage from the camera looking over the scene of crime and Dey's e-mail accounts, has been scanned thoroughly.

Many items have even been sent to the state forensic lab in Bangalore, but there has been no clinching evidence. Police are still scanning Dey's mail accounts and verifying them.

Police had earlier questioned all people related to the oil and diesel mafia, quarrying mafia and the underworld, but nothing has yielded a worthy outcome so far.