Hansal Mehta’s ‘Scoop’, recently released on Netflix, and based on the real-life story of Mumbai-based journalist Jigna Vora, has created quite a stir. While the show has gathered rave reviews, it has also piqued people’s interest in Vora on whom the central character of the show is based. Vora’s case created a sensation in 2011 when she was arrested for allegedly conspiring with gangster Chhota Rajan in the killing of veteran crime reporter Jyotirmoy Dey.
Scoop is based on Vora’s memoir, ‘Behind Bars in Byculla: My Days in Prison’. It stars Karishma Tanna in the lead role – she plays a crime reporter Jagruti Pathak – and features Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Harman Baweja, and Prosenjit Chatterjee in supporting roles. Apart from gangster Chhota Rajan, all other names have been changed in the show.
Who Is Jigna Vora?
Jigna Vora was an Asian Age journalist and a promising, ambitious journalist. She was the deputy bureau chief of the Asian Age newspaper’s Mumbai bureau and was 37 years old. It seemed that she had a bright career ahead of her when life took an unexpected and nightmarish turn – in 2011, Mid-Day’s senior reporter Jyotirmoy Dey was shot dead by unknown assailants, and soon Jigna’s name started doing the rounds in the list of “suspects”.
Vora, who would mingle with cops frequently for her articles, was soon charged by the police with giving underworld don Chhota Rajan vital details about Dey, including his residence and the license plate number of his bike. She was said to have links with underworld gangster Chhota Rajan. The fact that she had interviewed the underworld don a few weeks prior went against her.
Jigna was arrested and she spent nine months in prison. She was released on bail in 2012 from Byculla Jail in Mumbai. But she was only cleared of all the accusations after seven years in the 2018 special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court due to lack of evidence. After her release from prison, she wrote her memoirs ‘Behind Bars in Byculla: My Days in Prison’, which forms the basis of the web series Scoop.
Life Before Media
According to media reports, Jigna did her law degree from Ruparel College in Mumbai and later did a diploma course at Somaiya College. It was here she reportedly met Velly Thevar, her faculty and well-known crime reporter working for the Times of India, who influenced her to take up crime reporting. Jigna was initially doing an internship with a reputed law firm but due to pressure from her parents, she was forced to give it all up and marry a man who claimed he was an engineer and ran a printing press in Baruch, Gujarat. But it was later proved to be all lies and the couple separated. In 2004, Jigna came back to her maternal home with a four-year-old son after ending the marriage on a bitter note and started pursuing her career in media.
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The Present Day
Even though Jigna Vora was acquitted of all charges in the 2018 special MCOCA court due to lack of evidence, her journalism career did not revive. Vora is now a tarot reader and healer and is into astrology. Her book, ‘Behind Bars in Byculla: My Days in Prison’, highlights the difficult journey that she had to endure in prison for nine months and the overall plight of female prisoners, the unhygienic conditions – the unhealthy food they have to eat, and the poorly lit cells they have to live in, among other things. In the book, she also opened up about her friendship with Pragya Thakur.
