Mumbai, Mar 23 (Mumbai Mirror): A senior journalist working with a news channel told the Special CBI Court on Wednesday that his colleague had spoken to gangster Chhota Rajan, who admitted that he had killed journalist J Dey as he feared for his own life. The journalist, who heads the channel’s news bureau in Mumbai, said in his deposition yesterday that his colleague said journalist Jigna Vora had instigated Rajan against Dey, but he decided not to run the story as Rajan had refused to come on record.

The information conveyed to the court by the journalist -- that Rajan killed Dey as he feared for his life -- was not a part of his original statement, said lawyer Santosh Deshpande, who represented one of the accused in the J Dey murder trial. “This is one of the several omissions we brought on record,” Deshpande said.

The TV journalist, while being examined by the CBI’s special public prosecutor Pradeep Gharat, told the court that after his colleague told him about his conversation with Chhota Rajan, he asked whether Rajan was willing to go on record. “We did not run the story when Rajan declined,” the journalist told the court. Deshpande said the journalist had in his first statement said a man “claiming to be Chhota Rajan” had called up one of his colleagues, and now he couldn’t assign any reason for saying it was indeed Chhota Rajan who had spoken to the reporter.

J Dey was shot dead on June 11, 2011 near Powai Garden while he was on his way home. Rajan was arrested in Indonesia on October 25, 2014, and deported to India on November. It is the prosecution’s case that journalist Jigna Vora gave out information such as the registration number of Dey’s motorbike and his address to Rajan due to professional rivalry. She was arrested in November 2011, and is out on bail.