Police have arrested one more suspect in the J Dey murder case. J Dey, a senior reporter with Mid Day, was shot dead allegedly at the behest of fugitive gangster Chhota Rajan last month. “The Uttarakhand police have arrested Deepak Sisodiya from Kathgodam, Nainital. He has admitted that he supplied weapons to Arun Dake and Satish Kalya [two other accused arrested in the case],” Mumbai Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Himanshu Roy said here on Tuesday.
With this, the total number of arrests in this case has gone up to nine. The provisions of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) have been invoked in the case.
Mr. Roy said Sisodiya, a 25-year-old member of the Chhota Rajan gang, is also an arms supplier. He said no cases were registered against him in Mumbai. Sources said Chhota Rajan had a strong network in Uttarakhand.
Smuggled from Nepal?
Sisodiya allegedly handed over a .32 make sophisticated foreign-made weapon to Kalya and Dake in Kathgodam a few days before the murder. The murder weapon is suspected to have been smuggled from Nepal.
Meanwhile, in another important development in the case, a key accused has confessed to the crime. “Arun Dake confessed to the entire conspiracy before a Deputy Commissioner of Police,” Mr. Roy confirmed. Under the MCOCA, if an accused confesses before a DCP-level officer, it has evidentiary value.
Valid version
“In the court, it is not the testimony of the one who confessed, but [that of] the person who recorded the statement, which holds value. Many times, the accused retract their confession in the court on the advice of their lawyers, but in most of the cases the court believes in the testimony of the officer who recorded the statement. The retracted statement doesn't hold any meaning then,” Mr. Roy said.
Conspiracy
Dake rode a bike on which Kalya, the main accused who is alleged to have shot Dey, was riding pillion. “He has confessed to everything — the entire conspiracy and his role in it,” Mr. Roy said.
