The Bombay High Court on Monday rejected the bail pleas and applications seeking suspension of life sentences filed by four convicts in the 2011 murder of senior crime journalist Jyotirmoy Dey, popularly known as J Dey.
A division bench of Justices Ravindra Ghuge and Gautam Ankhad observed that it was not appropriate to suspend the sentence and grant bail to the convicts at this stage. A detailed copy of the court’s order is awaited.
The applications were filed by Nilesh Shedge, Sachin Gaikwad, Abhijit Shinde, and Mangesh Aagvane, who were convicted by a trial court in May 2018 and sentenced to life imprisonment for their role in Dey’s murder.
According to the prosecution, Shedge and Shinde travelled to Nainital, Uttarakhand, to procure the firearm used in the killing. Gaikwad conducted surveillance on Dey and provided a motorcycle to the shooters, while Aagvane allegedly accompanied the main shooter, Satish Kalia.
All four were found guilty of assisting in the planning and execution of the murder by arranging weapons and vehicles and helping the shooters.
Dey, 56, a well-known investigative journalist who reported extensively on Mumbai’s underworld, was shot dead in broad daylight on June 11, 2011, in the Powai area of Mumbai.
The trial court had also convicted underworld don Chhota Rajan for orchestrating the murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment. This case marked Rajan’s first conviction after his extradition from Bali, Indonesia, in 2015.
