Journalist Jigna Vora, arrested in connection with the murder of fellow scribe J Dey, was granted bail by the special court of Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) on Friday.
While granting bail to Vora, MCOCA court Judge S M Modak said that Vora did not have criminal antecedents. Vora was given bail on a surety of `1 lakh.
Moreover, the fact that the police had already filed the chargesheet worked in Vora’s favour. The development comes as a major blow to the city police, which claimed that Vora who had previously worked as deputy bureau chief at The Asian Age incited fugitive gangster Chhota Rajan to murder Dey due to professional enmity.
Though the Judge cited Vora being a single parent and ailing with asthma as the reasons for granting bail, he also noted that the forensic science laboratory had failed to retrieve the data from her mobile phone, which the police claimed she had deleted. The police had alleged that Vora had made calls from her phone to gangster Rajan. However, neither the police managed to get the information concerned from the mobile service providers, nor were the details found in her phone.
In fact, the entire police case against Vora hinges on the theory that she had contacted Rajan and as of now the police do not have any evidence to the effect.