Writing was his declaration of freedom even as he remained confined within the four walls of a massive central prison. Once a busy orthopaedic surgeon -- Chennai’s best-known hip replacement surgeon and the secretary of the Indian Orthopaedic Association -- Dr L. Prakash had never tried his hand with a pen. But that was before he was debarred from medical practice in 2001 and imprisoned for life in a case of making and selling pornographic CDs of his female patients.

"The police and underworld don't hit because someone was ticked off about a journalist," says S. Balakrishnan, a senior Mumbai journalist. "It costs huge amounts of money, boys, tremendous planning. Also, the provocation must be grave or severe."

A murder without a motive, says Suresh K

On the afternoon of June 11, veteran Mumbai crime reporter Jyotirmoy Dey was on his motorcycle, returning home to Powai after visiting his mother in Vikhroli, when he was shot and killed. The murder has roiled the journalistic fraternity, because it sends another reminder that reporters doing work of real consequence are placing their lives on the line, and also because, yet again, it has resulted in an inconclusive investigation that doesn't prove any motive.