J Dey - A Forgotten Hero

The second death anniversary of noted Mumbai crime reporter Jyotirmoy Dey got over recently (June 11) but our media, with its nano attention span, has 'moved on' to 'J Dey who?' levels. Last heard that it was recovering from a severe bout of NaMonia. This is despite the fact that the person happened to be from their own tribe.

Probably apart from Mid-Day newspaper, where Dey was employed when the unfortunate incident took place, no media house bothered to  remember him. Mid-Day highlighted the sad plight of his family, especially his mother who feels her son has been denied justice. 

It all happened on a rainy afternoon in Mumbai and many question regarding the audacious killing still remain unanswered. The sequence looked straight out of some Ram Gopal Varma's gangster flick - the only difference was that Dey was riding a humble motorcycle and not inside some swanky car. Four hitmen in two motorcycles pumped bullets at a close range and sped away.

Though the four men were arrested along with seven others and two chargesheets (each running into thousands of pages) filed, the overall picture is still quite hazy. The police would like us to believe that Chhota Rajan had given supari to kill Dey at the behest of Jigna Vora - a woman crime reporter of Asian Age with professional jealousy being the main motive. The case is going on and we hope the police has enough material to prove their allegation.

Already the Bombay High Court had on Feb 13, 2013, censured them for not procuring vital call records that would have established the conspiratorial link between gangster Chhotta Rajan and his lieutenants in India accused of carrying out Dey's murder. The police was tardy in approaching the telecom company for the call records, and the company (as per its rules) had wiped them off as it was more than a year old.

The tragedy of this country is that its prominent underworld mafia dons are holed up in safe havens of Pakistan, Middle East or Far East and well beyond the reach of our law enforcement agencies. They can only lay hands on small fries like sharpshooters and accomplices lurking in the mean streets of Mumbai. Hence the truth regarding many of the cases too remain at best glorified hypotheses and quite often miserably fall apart in the court of law.

The conduct of the media ranged from insensitive to slanderous. We had the bizarre spectacle of various gangsters calling up various media house to either disown or own the killings. First we had Chhotta Shakeel calling up newspaper and TV offices saying he did not kill Dey! Later we had Chhotta Rajan explaining why he killed Dey and at whose behest. In addition, various 'sources' were more than obliging to further spice up news stories. In their race for 'exclusives' and TRPs, media houses unconditionally lapped up these statements.

Going by these reports it would appear that Dey was more of a fixer for various mafia dons than a journalist; had amassed prime properties in Mumbai; a girlfriend tucked somewhere in the city; was frequently visiting abroad to meet various mafia dons. It goes without saying that all these reports warrant lavish pinches of salt. If a well known journalist can be slandered in this manner after his death, one shudders about the plight of lesser mortals.

Thankfully amidst all this puerile circus we had Dey getting recognition in Washington DC at a museum for journalists who lost their lives in the line of duty. Along with his photo they have briefly mentioned about his coverage of Mumbai underworld and the oil mafia and ends with a poignant remark by his mother, "You fought for others rights. Now who will fight for yours?"

Also Read: Bangalore Beat