Police claim Dey’s murder solved, detain five

Mumbai Police's crime branch on Monday claimed to have cracked the murder of veteran crime journalist J Dey, 16 days after he was shot dead in broad daylight in Powai, with the detention of five persons.

''We have cracked the case. At least five persons have been detained from the state as well as from outside the state,'' a senior crime branch official told news agency PTI.

J Dey (56), crime reporter with English tabloid Mid Day, was shot dead by four motorcycle-borne assailants in suburban Powai on 11 June, drawing widespread outrage. Post mortem reports revealed that Dey was shot at from close range. A total of five bullets were lodged in his body (See: Mumbai crime reporter gunned down; killers escape).

Mumbai crime branch sources said that the suspects, who have been rounded up from various parts of Karnataka and Maharashtra, will be produced in court on Monday.

Earlier, Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan had ruled out handing over the investigations into Dey's murder to the CBI, despite demands from various journalists' associations, saying the Mumbai police would crack the case soon (See: Top editors to meet Maharashtra CM on J Dey's killing) .

The Bombay High Court had also recently directed the police to file a report by 6 July on the progress of investigations into the scribe's murder.