Mumbai:
Journalist Jigna Vora, an accused in the murder of senior journalist Jyotirmoy Dey, has moved an application in the Special MCOCA Court in Mumbai seeking an in-camera trial in the case. The court will hear her application on December 20.
"Vora has filed an application seeking in-camera trial in the case. She has also sought that the media should be totally restrained or it should reveal the source of the stories," said special public prosecutor Dileep Shah.
Ms Vora, who was the Deputy Chief of Bureau of Asian Age, has been accused of providing the registration number of the motorcycle Mr Dey was riding when he was shot dead and his address to underworld don Chhota Rajan. Mr Dey, working with MidDay, was killed in broad daylight in suburban Powai on June 11, allegedly by Rajan's men. Ms Vora was arrested on November 25 and has been remanded to judicial custody till December 20.
Ms Vora claimed that the police was planting stories against her and accused the cops of character assassination.
The prosecution, however, argued in the court that there was no provision under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) for gagging the media.
The police had, earlier, seized seven cellphones belonging to Ms Vora. They are probing calls lasting as long as 1600 seconds and 1300 seconds between the arrested journalist and Rajan. Ms Vora changed her phone regularly to destroy the evidence, said police sources.
The police said that Ms Vora had confessed to having badmouthed J Dey in conversations with Rajan. They claim that Rajan was upset with two articles written by Mr Dey which portrayed him in bad light and hence ordered him to be killed.
Murtuza, a close friend of Ms Vora, has allegedly told the police that for the past four years, he and Ms Vora used to help members of the underworld, mainly theRajan gang, in legal issues. He alleged that the two charged money for providing such help and the police are now scrutinising Ms Vora's bank accounts to establish her links with the underworld.