Chilling details of how J Dey was murdered

New Delhi: As Mumbai police rounded up seven suspects allegedly belonging to the Chhota Rajan gang who shot dead veteran crime journalist Jyotirmoy Dey on June 11, the details of how they plotted and carried out the operation was released to the media on Monday.

Mumbai crime branch arrested the seven suspects accused of gunning down the tabloid reporter from various parts of Karnataka and Maharashtra.

Himanshu Roy, Joint CP Crime, and Arup Patnaik, Commissioner, Mumbai Police told the media how the accused planned the murder and how the police cracked the case sifting through evidence and chasing a trail that led to India's temple towns.

How the killers plotted and carried out the operation

* Main shooter and organizer is Rohit Thangappan alias Satish Kaliya, main shooter of Chhota Rajan.

* Anil Waghmode is an old associate of Satish Kaliya. Waghmode was contacted by Kaliya. He has three cases of murder registered against him.

* Kalia and Waghmode are known shooters of Chhota Rajan.

* Interrogation of Kaliya revealed that 20 days before Dey’s murder, he received a call from Chhota Rajan telling him of a job to be done and (was told) weapon and money will be arranged for it. Money was picked up from Chembur and he visited Nainital, Kathgodam to collect his sophisticated weapon - a deadly and sophisticated Czech gun.

* There were seven shooters and one weapon.

* First installment of Rs two lakh was collected in Chembur and next installment of Rs three lakh collected in Nala Sopara by Satish Kalia. Kalia was approached in both the area with money.

* A Qualis was used as a backup vehicle, it used to stay at a distance. Ten cellphones were recovered.

* The operation was carried out professionally. Enough watchers were there to make sure that target is identified.

* On June 8, Kalia accompanied Anil back to Peninsula. They decided that this is too difficult a place to carry out the operation. On June 9 and 10, all seven accused on three motorcycles and one on a Qualis roamed around in Hiranandani looking for their target. They went back on 11 at 1:30 pm and spotted Dey and started following him.

* Chhota Rajan allegedly gave them the description and number of the motorcycle. They were given two likely places - Peninsula Centre in Parel and Hiranandani area of Powai. On June 7, Anil carried out a recce of the area. At 2 pm on June 7, Dey came to work, his bike was spotted and the target was identified as per the specification given by Chhota Rajan.

* All the three teams and one person on Qualis had pre-decided to go to Jogeshwari and gather at one person's house. They watched TV and realised that something extraordinary has happened. Kalia called up Chhota Rajan and was offered more money and were advised to leave Mumbai. They left for Nalasopara and collected Rs five lakh.

* Anil was instructed by Satish to collect a team for operation. Anil contacted Nilesh who in turn contacted Arun from Chembur, who in turn contacted Sachin from Chembur and Abhijit Shetye. Mangesh was the 7th member. No body knew who the target was.

* Dey first stopped near Hiranandani hospital, and the accused thought of shooting him there. They waited for Dey to come out. Dey went to a couriering officer near IIT. Finally Dey was shot dead near Crisil house.

* Dey was shot dead outside the spectra building in Hiranandani area, five people got down there and got inside the Qualis.

* Dey had visited the UK, he was to visit Philippines.

* Persons involved in the crime have been picked up from various parts of the country. With a dead end and no leads, this was a job well done.

* Police said they don’t have the answer for a motive for the incident yet.

* Chhota Rajan likely to be an accused in the case and will be shown absconding in the case.

* MCOCA will be applied on all seven accused.

* Dey never complained about threat, neither did he tell anybody close about threat perception.

* More than 3000 emails were scanned

* Police had activated human and technical intelligence to crack the case

* Recovered weapon of offence, bikes and Qualis used in the operation

* Police got information about Satish, Anil and Abhijit in Rameshwaram. They flew their team there and managed to apprehend them. Their interrogation revealed info about others. One person was arrested from Solapur and others from Mumbai.

* The accused went to Solapur, Sangli, Bijapur, Madurai, Rameshwaram, Shirdi and Gujarat. They went to religious places.