ACP transfer linked to scribe killing? Mumbai top cop says no

Mumbai: The Mumbai police chief denied Tuesday any links between the transfer of a senior officer and the cold-blooded killing of a senior journalist who specialized on the underworld.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Anil Mahabole "is not at all involved in this attack", Mumbai Police Commissioner Aroop Patnaik said as journalists angry over the Saturday murder stepped up pressure to net the killers.

Mahabole also told Times Now that he had no idea why he has been transferred out of the Azad Maidan division of south Mumbai while police sources tried to establish a link of Mahabole's transfer with Dey's murder.

Mahabole insisted that he had no problems with Dey, an ace investigative reporter who was killed by four motorcycle-borne assailants near his residence Saturday afternoon.

Mahabole has several pending inquiries against him. T.K. Dwivedi, a colleague of Dey, accused Mahabole of threatening him. The officer denied the charge.

"A few weeks ago, when I was arrested in connection with an Official Secrets Acts case, Mahabole threatened me inside the Government Railway Police lock-up. I lodged a complaint," Dwivedi, who goes by the alias 'Akela', told IANS Tuesday.

Mahabole, in turn, said it was Dwivedi who had problems with him and that he (Mahabole) had sought permission from his seniors to file a defamation case against the journalist.

Mumbai Police Monday released a sketch of one of the four suspected killers of Dey.

The sketch, prepared following inputs of witnesses, described the suspect as a young man of 20-25 years, dark complexioned, about 5 feet 5 inches tall and of medium build.

More than 500 journalists of print and electronic media Monday took out a protest march to the state secretariat.

The journalists met Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, who rejected their demand for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into Dey's killing.

Unhappy with the pace of investigations, the journalists plan to launch a relay hunger strike and move the Bombay High Court. They want a direction to the government to hand over the murder probe to the CBI.





 

                                           Home | Top of the Page

Top Stories

Are you scared? Team Hazare asks PM; Congress hits back

A day after Baba Ramdev ended his nine-day fast against corruption, Team Hazare Monday asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh why he was "scared" of the proposed   »

Threat to democracy is from unelected tyrants, says Congress

  Most Read

Jayalalithaa accuses Chidambaram of poll fraud; demands resignation

Accusing Home Minister P. Chidambaram of fraudulently getting elected to the Lok Sabha, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa Tuesday demanded his resignation.   »

Three Indian journalists killed in six months

Jyotirmoy Dey was the third journalist in India to be killed in the past six months, a media watchdog said Tuesday. There have also been 14 attacks on the Indian media in the same period. In all the cases  »

Scribe Killing: Chavan says no to CBI probe, media threaten stir

  News Pick

Modi using literacy drive funds for own publicity: Congress

The Congress Monday sought to refute Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's charge of injustice by the central government and accused him of instead diverting funds for the literacy drive for his own publicity.   »

Why Omar should focus on progress, not Congress

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has emphasized that he will not have to give up his chair in favour of the coalition partner, the Congress. While many agree he need not worry on that count, they say   »

Ex-Russian colonel, guilty of Chechen war crime, buried

Yury Budanov, the former Russian army colonel who served nine years for the murder of a Chechen woman during the second war in Chechnya, was laid to rest in a Moscow suburb Monday. He was shot dead in the Russian capital   »

UP girl's murder confirmed; 11 cops, three doctors suspended

The Uttar Pradesh police Monday confirmed that the 14-year-old girl found hanging inside a police station compound was strangled to death. One constable    »

'Death in a police station shocking; cops should be arrested'

Tony Blair reads Quran every day, says it is a reforming book

Former British prime minister Tony Blair has become "increasingly open" about the importance of religion, and reads the Quran every   »

Picture of the Day

A shattered photograph of the artist in a vandalised exhibition in New Delhi in August, 2008. The artist and his paintings have been a target of a Hindutva hate campaign. Some groups alleged that his work hurt religious sensitivities.

(Photo: V.V. Krishnan/ The Hindu)