Mumbai, June 27 (IANS) It took a 22-member police team 16 days of painstaking and continuous effort under tremendous pressure to crack the shocking daylight murder of senior journalist Jyotirmoy Dey, a top Mumbai police officer said Monday.

 
 "The case generated a tremendous amount of outrage and tremendous pressure on the Crime Branch. The entire force, right down to a constable, did nothing but concentrate on this case," Police Commissioner Arup Patnaik said, on the day police cracked the case, arresting seven men for killing the investigative journalist at the behest of mafia don Chhota Rajan.
 
 "The pressure was rising and we have several leads run dry before we finally cracked the case," he added.
 
 Patnaik said that the police force cannot bring Dey back, but can surely keep the media fraternity up to date with whatever information they have been able to gather on his killers.
 
 Three police inspectors, four assistant police inspectors and 15 other staff members formed the core crime branch team that tirelessly pursued the Dey murder case, he said.
 
 One team each followed leads in Solapur in Maharashtra, Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu and Bangalore in Karnataka.
 
  "It wouldn't be wrong to say that we suffered sleepless nights in order to reach to the assailants of Dey," said Police Inspector Sripat Kale, a member of the team.
 
  The team of 22 officials, divided in to three teams, worked day and night to crack the case, following every little link that might lead them to Dey's killers. Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Himanshu Roy oversaw the entire operation.
 
  The seven people involved in the murder of Dey were main accused Rohit Thangappan Joseph alias Satish Kalia, 34, Anil Bhanudas Waghmode, 35, Abhijit Kashiram Shinde, 28, Arun Janardan Dake, 27, Sashin Suresh Gaikwad, 27, Nilesh Narayan Shengde alias Babloo, 34 and Mangesh Damodar  Agavane, 25.
 
 After splitting up from Mumbai, the killers mostly went to temple towns in teams of two or three.
 
 "They first went to Pavagadh in Gujarat, then to places like Shirdi, Akkalkot, Solapur and Sangali in Maharashtra, Bijapur and Bangalore in Karnataka and then to Madurai and Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu," Roy said.
 
 "Satish Kalia was found from Rameswaram beach, where he was strolling around aimlessly, following which other two were also arrested," Kale said.
 
 The others were arrested from Mumbai and Solapur town of Mahrashtra.
 
 Dey was a respected journalist who worked for Mid Day newspaper and specialised on the mafia. The daring afternoon murder triggered widespread protests, putting enormous strain on Mumbai police.