Vora has been charged under sections 120(b) (conspiracy) and 302 (murder) of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). The investigating team contended that Vora had “instigated fugitive gangster Sadashiv Nikakalje aka Chhota Rajan against Mid-Day journalist J Dey.”
The public prosecutor had initially sought an eight-day extension in her custody, saying that it was necessary to recover Vora’s cell phone, which she had sold and retrieve the phone records. “It was a case of professional rivalry over sources,” police said last Friday in a press meet while announcing Vora's arrest. Dey had eulogised Chhota Rajan and thereafter started writing stories having a slant towards Rajan’s rival Chhota Shakil.
Vora, who had started her career as a film journalist before becoming a court reporter, had started dabbling in police and crime reporting for the last couple of years. The two scribes once had an argument over a small-time stoolie and fixer Farid Tanasha. Following Tanasha’s murder, both Dey and Vora had described Tanasha as “source.”
Irked by this behaviour, Vora had allegedly instigated Rajan against Dey over phone, records of which the police claims to have ferreted out.