Journalist declared as hostile witness in J Dey murder case

The prosecution in the J Dey murder case on Wednesday declared a senior journalist as a hostile witness. Extradited gangster Chhota Rajan is the main accused in the case

J. Dey

The prosecution in the J Dey murder case on Wednesday declared a senior journalist as a hostile witness. Extradited gangster Chhota Rajan is the main accused in the case.

"We have declared (journalist) Sunil Mehrotra hostile in the case as he did not support the prosecution case," said special public prosecutor Pradeep Gharat.

In his statement to CBI, Mehrotra allegedly said assailant Satish Kaliya once told him outside the court (following latter's arrest in the case) that had he known that Dey was a journalist, he would not have killed him. However, during his deposition in the court today during the trial, Mehrotra denied such a conversation took place, so the prosecution declared him as hostile.

Mehrotra told PTI that Kaliya never spoke to reporters, and after recording his statement, CBI never gave him a copy, and he never signed the statement. "CBI twisted my statement," he said. According to CBI, Rajan had Jyotirmoy alias J Dey, a senior crime reporter, killed here in June 2011, as he was peeved with certain articles written by him which supposedly showed the gangster in poor light.

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