Police informers key to cracking Dey murder case - Times of India

MUMBAI: Though the Mumbai police took the help of several technical experts, including from popular search site Google, to crack the J Dey murder case, the important leads finally came through human channels. It was police informants who led the cops to making the seven arrests. Of course, early on in the case other informers had misled the cops that sandalwood smugglers were behind the killing.

Several police teams were working on Dey's murder, but the crime branch's property cell and Unit 6, which began by keeping tabs on established criminals and former gangsters, learnt that Rajan's shooters, Satish Kalia and Anil Waghmore, were missing from Mumbai. "When our team reached Kalia's residence at Golibar in Santa Cruz (East), we found that his slum had undergone redevelopment and Kalia, who was released in 2008 in an extortion case, had gone to Kerala. We sent a team and found him missing there. So our suspicions arose and we started searching for him,'' said Himanshu Roy, joint commissioner of police (crime).

During inquiries, police got a cell number of Kalia's and, while tracking it, saw that he was on a pilgrimage along with his wife and daughter. Kalia had visited Shirdi, Akalkot, Pawakad and Rameshwaram, where police finally cornered him along with two other accused. "We interrogated the three (Kalia, Anil Waghmore and Abhijeet Shinde) separately and one of them broke down and narrated the entire story. After we revealed this to Kalia, he admitted the crime," said inspector Sripad Kale.

Police then made Kalia call up the other accused so they could be trapped. Nilesh Shelge came to a spot in Solapur thinking Kalia wanted to pay him money. Police played the same trick on Mangesh Agawane, Sachin Gaikwad and Arun Dhake, who were in Mumbai.

During interrogations, Kalia said the contract killing was finalized after Dey had returned from a UK trip in May this year. In Mumbai, at Rajan's behest, an unknown man had paid Kalia Rs 2 lakh in cash in Chembur. In the third week of May, Kalia went to Nainital, where he was given a point-32 revolver with 25 bullets. After the killing, another Rs 3 lakh was paid to the killers.

Mumbai police chief Arup Patnaik, who was overjoyed with the detection, said, "There was tremendous pressure on us. There were no leads at first, but I am proud that the crime branch solved the case and kept its and the force's dignity.''

Sources said a Rs 10 lakh award is likely to go to the officers of the property cell and Unit 6. Both cells first made headlines when they arrested the 21 Indian Mujahideen (IM) men in 2008. Their investigations led to the cracking of around 11 bomb blast cases across the country since 2005. Later, the same cops were instrumental in solving advocate Shahid Azmi's murder. They also cracked oil mafia Sayyed Chand Madar's murder case. Last year, they cracked two pending murder cases. They also detected three murder cases with the arrests of members of the Ravi Pujari gang.

But what has disturbed the team is that the government has still not given the policemen the Rs 10 lakh cash prize for cracking the IM case.