The real story of Netflix series Scoop and the murder of Mumbai journalist J Dey
Prosenjit Chatterjee (R) plays the role of late journalist Jyotirmoy Dey (L) in the Neflix web series Scoop. Photo: Twitter
Web shows on sensational crimes in India have been making a lot of headlines in recent times. Hansal Mehta’s new show Scoop, released on Netflix, is also on the list.
The 6-episode web series is inspired by journalist Jigna Vora’s book Behind Bars in Byculla: My Days in Prison. The show features Karishma Tanna playing the role of journalist Jigna Vora, alongside actors Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub and Harman Baweja in pivotal roles.
It follows the tumultuous time of Vora in the Byculla prison, where she spent nearly 10 months. Vora was arrested at the peak of her career in connection with the murder of fellow journalist Jyotirmoy Dey (played by Prosenjit Chatterjee in Scoop) in 2011.
The show also highlights the alleged connections of underworld with some officials of the Mumbai Police and how the gang-war between Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Rajan had impacted the law and order of Mumbai city.
Who is Jigna Vora?
Jigna Vora is a former journalist who worked as a crime reporter with The Asian Age newspaper in Mumbai. She had a law degree and took up crime reporting after coming in contact with criminal undertrials and members from the underworld while working with the tabloid Mumbai Mirror.
After her marriage ended, she returned to Mumbai with her 4-year-old son in 2005 and started to pursue a career in journalism. The same year, she joined the Free Press Journal (FPS) and started court reporting. Vora was assigned to cover Abu Salem at the TADA court inside Arthur Road jail.
Her big story with Mid-Day came when she covered a story on Nikhalje Sujate, wife of gangster Chhota Rajan, who was arrested for extortion threats against a builder. Vora’s next big hit came when she did a big story on Mumbai’s encounter specialist cop, Pradeep Sharma.
Soon thereafter, she joined The Asian Age and in 2008, she covered the sensational story of Jaya Chheda, who was arrested for planning the murder of her husband to take over his business in Mumbai.
Vora, within no time, developed good connections. However, her alleged links with underworld gangster Chhota Rajan landed her in trouble. She was arrested for allegedly conspiring with gangster Chhota Rajan in the killing of veteran crime reporter J Dey in 2011.
Who was Jyotirmoy Dey and why was he murdered?
Jyotirmoy Dey was a crime and investigation editor with Mid-Day, and an expert on the Mumbai underworld. He was shot dead on June 11, 2011, by four bike-borne assailants in Mumbai's Powai area while he was returning after meeting his mother.
Dey was a crime reporter who had written several stories against the underworld and oil mafia, and his killing was considered mainly a work of the Chhota Rajan gang. It was claimed that Dey had rubbed Rajan the wrong way and had written several stories against the gangster, which ultimately infuriated him.
Journalist Jigna Vora got caught up in the murder tale because of her conversation with Chhota Rajan which she claimed was for an interview. The interview was dated May 26, 2011, nearly 15 days before Dey’s murder.
According to an India Today report, Chhota Rajan had confessed to one of his business associates that Vora had been calling him up and instigating him against Dey, whom she called a traitor for working for Dawood and ISI.
When Dey was murdered, Vora was arrested for revealing information about Dey’s bike plate number to Rajan. She was charged under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
However, the Mumbai Police could not furnish any solid evidence against Vora in the 10 months of her judicial custody and the chargesheet filed against her was said to be “weak” and she was exonerated by the court after seven years.
Was there animosity between Vora and Dey?
There was no animosity initially between them as Dey was very senior to Vora, who started her journalism career pretty late. Even when the two worked together for a brief stint of three months at Mid-Day in 2008, the two hardly talked to each other and their work was different.
Dey at Mid-Day worked as a crime reporter while Vora was then working independently.
However, the two seemed to have rubbed shoulders during their coverage of the underworld as crime reporters. According to an India Today report, the two had a slight verbal altercation at the funeral of Chhota Rajan’s aide Tanasha. This led to Vora allegedly sending a “I will see you” message to Dey.
This was one of the prima facie reasons why Mumbai Police went after Vora. Second, Vora also had deleted her online presence on Facebook right after the murder, which gave the Mumbai Police another reason to go after her.
The police said that they had prima facie evidence against Vora of sharing incriminating information with the Rajan gang: Dey’s bike registration number and residential address.
However, none of this could stand as solid evidence against Vora and she was eventually let off.
Chhota Rajan charged with J Dey’s murder
In 2018, Chhota Rajan was ultimately charged and sentenced to life imprisonment by a CBI court, along with seven others, for the murder of J Dey in 2011.
One accused, Vinod Asrani died during the trial. After hearing the judgment, Rajan only said "Theek hai (Ok)". Rajan was extradited to India in October 2015 by the Indonesia government and since then has been in the Tihar jail.