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.

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