Mumbai Police was on Sunday probing if the oil mafia had any hand in the killing of senior investigative journalist Jyotirmoy Dey

Mumbai Police was on Sunday probing if the oil mafia had any hand in the killing of senior investigative journalist Jyotirmoy Dey even as chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said there was no "solid evidence" yet to crack the case. Chavan held an emergency meeting at his residence and took stock of the investigations during which he directed Mumbai Police commissioner Arup Patnaik to quickly arrest the culprits involved in Saturday's incident.
A senior police officer said on the condition of anonymity that "we are probing the incident from all angles. But our line of investigation is going towards checking the possible involvement of people associated with the oil mafia."

The journalist had extensively written a number of news reports on the oil mafia, which may have triggered them to eliminate him.

"We have a reason to believe that the killers must have been hired from outside Mumbai or maybe from outside Maharashtra," the officer said, adding four teams have been formed by the Crime Branch to probe the matter on a priority basis.

Four motorbike-borne men gunned down the MiD-DAY journalist in suburban Powai.

Chavan later talking to reporters termed Dey's murder as a "heinous crime" and said the government was confident of getting leads in the case soon.

"I took stock of investigations so far in the murder case. Till now we have not got strong evidence. The home ministry and the police department are carrying out investigation. We are expecting to get leads soon," he said.

"This is a very serious and heinous crime and we will get to the bottom of it," he added.

Dey's last rites were performed at suburban Ghatkopar. Print and electronic media personnel were present in large numbers.

A report of the post-mortem report conducted by government-run JJ Hospital says that five bullets were fired at Dey. While four bullets pierced through his body, one bullet had got stuck in his right chest, a police officer said.

"Three bullets hit his left arm and one his left part of the chest. One bullet had got stuck in his right part of the chest," said the officer.

State home minister RR Patil, police commissioner Arup Patnaik, joint commissioner of police (crime) Himanshu Roy, joint commissioner of police (law and order) Rajnish Seth and several senior government officers were present at the meeting called by the chief minister.

Talking to the reporters after the meeting, Patil said that necessary measures would be taken by the government to protect the journalists.

He also said that special police teams have been constituted to arrest the culprits in the present case.

Adequate security will be provided to Dey's family members, official sources said.

Read more »

Posted in: Mumbai Police was on Sunday probing if the oil mafia had any hand in the killing of senior investigative journalist Jyotirmoy Dey

The Mumbai crime branch has formed four squads at the insistence of the chief minister for an investigation into the death of Jyotirmoy Kumar Dey

The Mumbai crime branch has formed four squads at the insistence of the chief minister for an investigation into the death of Jyotirmoy Kumar Dey, the Mid Day journalist shot dead by bike-borne youths yesterday.

Senior police officers said the crime branch teams would explore all angles — personal enmity, a possible hand of the oil mafia against whom 56-year-old Dey had written several reports and the underworld. “The ballistic experts are still working on the nature of the weapons used,” a senior crime branch officer associated with the probe said today.

One of the reports by Dey, which appeared a day after a Rs 5 oil price hike was announced by the Centre in May, detailed how the oil mafia was making a killing by stealing fuel from incoming ships and selling it in the grey market.

Dey had done a series of reports on the attack on Dawood Ibrahim’s brother Iqbal Kaskar last month. Kaskar’s driver was killed in the attack by two assailants who came on a bike.

The journalist was also spearheading Mid-Day’s campaign against the arrest of his colleague, Tarakant Dwivedi, by the railway police last month. Dwivedi was arrested after he allegedly entered a government armoury and filed a report exposing the railway’s negligence of weapons it had been given after the 26/11 attacks. Rainwater had damaged the weapons, the report said.

A source said: “We are checking J. Dey’s recent reporting to see if there was anything he wrote that could have rubbed anyone the wrong way.”

Mumbai police commissioner Arup Patnaik said the way Dey was murdered indicated the hand of professionals. Witnesses said four youths followed Dey on two motorbikes and fired at him from close range. The post-mortem report said five bullets hit Dey in his left arm and chest.

Nikhil Dixit, a close friend of Dey who lit the pyre today, said the journalist had not mentioned any threats to him. “If he was receiving threats, he would have definitely shared it with me,” Dixit said.

Dey was to travel abroad on an official assignment on June 21. He got a call from a friend yesterday who told him he needed to get his passport and other documents ready. Dey left his mother’s house in Ghatkopar for Powai to pick up the papers. “He telephoned his wife to tell her he was going home to fetch the papers to photocopy them, and would return to Ghatkopar to have lunch with his mother. The attack took place when he was about to reach his Powai house,” Dixit said.

Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan summoned top police officers for an emergency meeting at his residence. Home minister R.R. Patil and police commissioner Patnaik were present. He asked the police to form the special squads and provide security to Dey’s wife, mother and sister.

This morning, Dey’s body was taken to his mother’s home where a large number of journalists turned up to say goodbye. The funeral took place at Rajawadi crematorium.

Read more »

Posted in: The Mumbai crime branch has formed four squads at the insistence of the chief minister for an investigation into the death of Jyotirmoy Kumar Dey

India has not committed to support French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde's candidacy for the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) top job,

 Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Tuesday, a sign that India may still be hopeful of nominating an alternative candidate.

Lagarde said that Indian officials had given positive views on her credentials as part of a visit to the country to drum up support for her candidacy in a television interview barely two hours after Mukherjee's comments.

The French minister added that she hoped to get a view on China's position during her visit to the country that begins on Wednesday.

The IMF top job fell vacant after its former boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn was arrested on charges of sexually assaulting a hotel maid. Kahn has pleaded not guilty to the charge.

"No assurance," Mukherjee replied tersely, on being asked whether he had given any assurance to Lagarde for the top job at the IMF.

The Indian finance minister reiterated India's position saying the candidate chosen for the top job at the IMF should be on merit.

Lagarde later described her meetings with Indian officials as "excellent."

"I don't think I will betray their confidence in saying that they (Indian leaders) expressed positive views about my skills and credentials," she told CNBC-TV18.

Lagarde is seen as the leading candidate in the IMF race, which also includes Mexico's central bank chief Agustin Carstens.

"Many African countries have expressed, publicly for some and privately for others, their support for my candidacy," Lagarde said.

"My suspicion frankly, is that a lot of countries are going to wait until June 10, because that is the closing of candidacy filing," she added.

BRIC CANDIDATE?

Indian officials have been working behind the scenes with other BRICS countries and emerging markets to evolve a consensus for an alternative to Lagarde, but that consensus has eluded them so far.

The Indian finance minister said that it is difficult to say whether the BRICS and the emerging markets will have a common candidate for the top job.

"We are working together with the BRICS countries. It is difficult to say at right this moment because there is a divergence of views in respect of different candidates."

The BRICS grouping includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

That divergence has allowed the European Union to quickly close ranks behind Lagarde. The French also claimed support from the Chinese and the U.S. though both these countries did not publicly proclaim support for Lagarde.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. President Barack Obama are expected to meet today and the issue of the IMF top job is likely to be on the discussion table.

The United States and EU together hold 48 percent of the votes at the IMF and if U.S. and China support Lagarde, the French finance minister will end up with the top job.

With no unity in the ranks of the emerging economies and the BRICS countries, the only stumbling block for Lagarde could be an order which may open her up to an enquiry into her role in a 2008 legal settlement.

Read more »

Posted in: India has not committed to support French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde's candidacy for the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) top job

Cops investigating the case of absconding Canadian drug dealer are expected to arrest some more people in coming days

Cops investigating the case of absconding Canadian drug dealer are expected to arrest some more people in coming days. Investigating officials have already arrested three persons including the mastermind in the case. The focus is now on Surat where escapee Xie Jeng Fang alias Richard had stayed for some time after fleeing from police custody in April.

"Investigations have revealed involvement of some more persons. We will arrest at least four persons in the case. All of them are from Surat. Many of them are instrumental in hiding Richard and helping him in logistics," said a senior police official.

The cops have learnt that Richard has bought a mobile phone while on run. They are now trying to get the mobile number and trace it. The cops, however, have no clue about the direction in which Richard had fled. Though rumours of Richard having fled towards Nepal are doing rounds, they have not made any special team to trace him. The cops got first breakthrough some days ago when they arrested Altaf Patel, who had helped Richard in hatching the plan to escape.

Patel, a history-sheeter, who is also accused of having killed a fashion model in 2003, was paid Rs five lakh to execute the plan. On April 28 this year, Richard, who was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in 2008 on Vadodara-Ahmedabad highway with 1.5 kilograms of methamphetamine, stimulant drug, fled on a motorbike from a tea-stall near SSG Hospital. Interrogation of Richard led NCB to Sakhi Organics in Savli where they found 110 kilograms of methamphetamine worth crores of rupees.

Read more »

Posted in: Cops investigating the case of absconding Canadian drug dealer are expected to arrest some more people in coming days

The arrest of ‘Ponzi’ operator Imtiaz Saiyed by the Ahmedabad Crime Branch has now brought his old company Waves Investment Ltd under the scanner.

The arrest of ‘Ponzi’ operator Imtiaz Saiyed by the Ahmedabad Crime Branch has now brought his old company Waves Investment Ltd under the scanner.
It was after complaints against one Abhay Gandhi, an alleged Ponzi scheme operator, that investors duped in similar fashion approached the police and Saiyed was among those arrested in the crackdown.

The police have said that Saiyed is an old Ponzi master from Ahmedabad and has been running his operations from the Juhapura area for over 10 years now.

Waves Investment, the police said, has over 50,000 investors across Gujarat, especially in Ahmedabad, Anand, Kheda, Himmatnagar, Godhra and Vadodara.

According to the police, Saiyed started the company with barely 10 to 20 investors from his own local community in his neighbourhood and then expanded his market among the per-dominant share dealers in the Satellite, Vastrapur and Navrangpura areas, making over Rs 100 crore in profits each year.

Investigations have revealed that Saiyed’s fraud was not limited to inviting share investments, but involved opening bank accounts with two major private banks in respective cities. Saiyed had appointed several agents to build a customer network for him and his agents, with help from the bank agents, opened trading accounts in private banks and the dealings with the customers were done on fake stamp papers. Besides the bank accounts, there was no other proof of investments, the police said.

Ahmed Pathan, an agent of Saiyed (now on the run) told this paper: “The company floated three different schemes for the share dealers - 10 per cent trading scheme with trading accounts; a bank deposit scheme with double money in return; and share market scheme at 10 per cent. The money was shifted from one person’s bank account to another to show that it a double return on deposits. The 10 per cent trading scheme was the most popular in Ahmedabad where investors received 10 per cent ‘return’ every month. His experience as a bank employee helped him dupe investors with the trade account schemes.”

The police said Saiyed launched his ‘Ponzi’ business after the reported success of Zahir Rana of Ahmedabad (now in custody). Rana was the first one to bring the ‘Ponzi’ schemes in the city, duping investors to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore.

The police said Saiyed could successfully remain out of the police net due to his past record as an employee of a nationalised bank. He was earlier arrested for swindling Rs 3 crore from the SBI, but was later bailed out.

Hussain Qadri, one of the several investors duped by Saiyed, said: “I had invested Rs 50, 000 in the 10 per cent trading scheme where I would get Rs 5,000 every month. He claimed that the deposit was being tripled and after an year, he will give Rs 3 lakh”.

Another investor, Kalim Saiyyed, who paid Rs 1 lakh to the company in 2005, said he was told he had earned Rs 20 lakh. 4th complaint filed against Abhay Gandhi

The Ahmedabad Crime Branch has registered a fourth complaint against fraudster Abhay Gandhi. Five persons have accused him of duping them of Rs 1.80 lakh in fraudulent investment schemes. The police have also seized a Toyota car belonging to Abhay, worth Rs 20 lakh, from a car dealer. The accused had reportedly left his car for sale at the dealer’s store.

Read more »

Posted in: The arrest of ‘Ponzi’ operator Imtiaz Saiyed by the Ahmedabad Crime Branch has now brought his old company Waves Investment Ltd under the scanner.