Did former bookie fund J Dey murder?

Bookie-turned-builder Vinod Chembur was arrested yesterday; he allegedly helped the killers identify J Dey

IN the eighth arrest in the J Dey murder case, the Mumbai Police nabbed Vinod Asrani alias Vinod Chembur (50), a bookie-turned-builder and known close aide of Chhota Rajan.

Asrani is believed to have helped the killers identify Dey and police are probing whether he had a financial link to the hit.



A senior crime branch official said that on June 7, four days before Dey's murder, his alleged shooters, Satish Kalia and Anil Waghmode, had conducted a recce of the MiD DAY office in Parel.

The same evening, Asrani allegedly met Dey at the Uma Hotel in Mulund to help Waghmode re-identify him so that they could be sure that they were tailing the right man.

The official said Asrani had decided to meet Dey at Rajan's insistence and a reporter from the electronic media was also present at the meeting.

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Vinod Chembur being produced in court yesterday. He is the eighth man arrested in the J Dey murder case

Cops believe that Asrani met the shooters later and knew about the conspiracy to kill the veteran crime reporter.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Himanshu Roy said, "Vinod Asrani has been arrested for being part of the criminal conspiracy to kill Dey. Further investigation is on."

According to police sources, Asrani was arrested by officials from the Crime Branch and Property Cell from the domestic airport on Saturday night, when he was returning from Delhi with his family.

"Asrani has been booked under Section 302 (murder) and 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.

He will be booked under the MCOCA too. We are also probing whether he supplied money to the shooters," said a Crime Branch official.


The spot where J Dey was murdered in Powai. The accused, Vinod Asrani, allegedly met Dey at the
Uma Hotelu00a0in Mulund four days before he was killed


Asrani was produced before a local court yesterday and has been remanded in police custody till July 7.

The other arrested accused in the case are Rohee Thangappan Joseph alias Satish Kalya (34), Abhijeet Shinde (28), Arun Dake (27), Sachin Gaikwad (27), Anil Waghmode (35), Nilesh Shendge (34) and Mangesh Agawane (25).

56-year-old Dey, MiD DAY's Editor (Investigation) was shot dead by four motorcycle-borne assailants in Powai on June 11.

False sympathy
When a journalist called Asrani on June 11 and told him that Dey had been killed, the builder wasn't surprised and said he would turn on the television later and check.u00a0

Two days later, in his second conversation with the journalist, Asrani said Dey was a very nice, honest man.

Asrani said Dey had helped him end a dispute over a building in Chembur by doing a report on it. He said he had sent Dey a motorcycle in gratitude, which was immediately returned.