Thaindian News

Mumbai, June 21 (IANS) The Bombay High Court Tuesday gave time till July 6 to the Mumbai police to file a progress report on the probe into the brutal killing of senior journalist Jyotirmoy Dey.

While hearing a petition seeking transfer of the probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the court told Advocate General Ravi Kadam: “Please convey our anxiety to the investigating officers and file a further report on progress in the probe.”

A division bench of Justice Ranjana Desai and Justice R.V. More issued the direction after going through a confidential report submitted by the police.

Justice Desai said that police had made efforts and were awaiting something so they should be given more time.

“When investigating agencies are working, the courts do not interfere but if we find they have not done a proper job then we will take them to task,” she remarked.

“We have been given time till July 6 to submit the report on the investigations into the Dey case,” Joint Police Commissioner (Crime) Himanshu Roy told reporters.

The court’s direction came on a bunch of petitions filed by Mumbai lawyer V.P. Patil, ‘Deshbhakti Andolan’ tabloid editor S. Balakrishnan and a former journalist Ketan Tirodkar.

The Mumbai Press Club and the Marathi Patrakar Parishad have also filed affidavits.

All the petitions have sought a CBI probe into the killing of Dey, Editor (Special Investigations), Mid Day, who was gunned down near his residence at Powai in north Mumbai June 11.

The petitioners told the court the police should be granted only one week for investigations.

Tirodkar argued that the stringent provisions of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act should be applied in the Dey murder case.

In its affidavit, the Mumbai Press Club expressed apprehensions that Dey was killed due to his investigative reports on alleged links between police and underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.

Balakrishnan demanded a CBI probe since the police were yet to make any headway in the case.

In a related development, a group of senior editors called on Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan demanding that the Dey murder case be handed over to CBI.