Jigna Vora gets bail after 8 months, questions remain

Mumbai: Jigna Vora got her first breather in the eight months since her arrest for her alleged involvement in the murder of veteran journalist Jyotirmoy Dey on Friday when the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court granted her bail. Vora was granted bail on a cash bond of Rs1 lakh after the court observed that she had no criminal antecedents. The judge allowed the bail on the grounds that since a charge sheet had already been filed, her custody was no longer required and that she suffered from frequent bouts of asthma.
While granting bail, the judge referred to the Kalina Forensic Science Laboratory’s failure to retrieve details of calls allegedly made by the journalist to underworld don Chhota Rajan, who is reported to have ordered Dey’s killing. The laboratory had stated in its report submitted to the court on July 23 that data from Vora’s six cellphone handsets could not be retrieved, as it does not have the necessary equipment to do so. The police had claimed that Vora had sent text messages to her friends, acquaintances and Dey during the course of her duty. They were banking on call details to build a watertight case against her.


The MCOCA court, however, laid down several conditions while granting the bail. Vora has to submit her passport to the police and must produce herself before the office of the crime branch, which is investigating Dey’s murder, twice a month. Vora will be released from the Byculla jail, where she is lodged, on Monday.